Lustless Lawns
by softeyesxX
Summary: This is the story of a fiery red headed girl and a new mysterious friend as they begin their 6th year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Love erupts and there's no turning back. Chp 19 is up finally !
1. Grass grows all too well

**Lustless Lawns**

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Hair of fire, and softened eyes was all he saw at first. Black frump and a dazed look was all she saw. Walking the damp corridors of Hogwarts; School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Lily Evans was one who never really understood the reality of society, the importance of friendship or the sentiment of memories held between two people, but that was all about to change as she first stepped through the large oak double doors into a world that, until that summer, was left unknown to her. She gazed about the lofty and comfortable place with eyes of interest and curiosity. She had been so meek and innocent at that one moment that she hardly recognized herself. As she was swept down a hall jumbled by a mass amount of people her dreamy stare was not broken until one boy came flying at her from out of the blue. He made a loud shrieking noise as they both tumbled to the floor. She huffed as her face came to meet the cold stone just a couple inches from her noise. She let the scent of the mildew encrusted marble linger between her senses until she turned to discover the culprit of her downfall.

"Sorry," the boy only muttered. He stood and looked down at her with a strange look before carrying on. Her mouth fell open aghast as she heaved herself up off the floor and glared at the boy just as he turned to look over his shoulder one last time before being shoved through another group of doors. She wiped off her black robes that were now damp and gritty from the floor and sighed. 'Wonderful,' she thought to herself, 'Not even two seconds and I'm already being trampled on,' she sighed and wiped her face with a gritty sleeve and carried on through the second pair of doors, jogging to keep up with the rest of the group. Many people in dark robes and pointed hats stared back at her and laughed and joked with each other. She was always one for paying attention to her surroundings, noticing the small things; a boys stomach grumbled from the long train ride and lack of food, a girl whispered to another laughing and pointing with purple painted fingernails. Lily decided to just look straight ahead as she carried on down the rest of the way to immerse herself in the cloud of black robes and pointed hats that were to be her fellow classmates. Soon students were being called to attention by a strange hat that seemed to be conversing with the rest of the hall. She was hardly paying attention looking at the lit torches that were embellished with gargoyles and roses when she first heard the name.

"James Potter!" an old woman with several wrinkles circling her eyes and cheeks letting down to droop around her chin called. Her eyes were sharp her tone increasingly shrill, as a boy with messy black hair approached the chair with long strides; well as long a stride as any boy of eleven years could take. She recognized him as the boy who had ran into her and then left her to introduce her face to the floor. A grimace crossed her lips as the hat was placed on his head covering his eyes then shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!" the boy then proceeded to jump down and join a table with shouts and cheers waving their hats. He took his seat as Lily let her gaze wander back to the workmanship of the age old castle. Names passed and she was nudged when she heard her name for the second time, "Lillian Evans!" the old woman was looking irritated as Lily hurried up the steps and sat on the stool. The old woman pursed her lips and set the hat over her head. She was immediately dropped into darkness as a faint smell of old leather came to her nose. The hat took its time deliberating until he finally shouted "GRYFFINDOR!" and from the moment on, when that hat came off her head, her life was far from normal.

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**Summer before 6th Year**

"Lily!" a shout came from downstairs from her suburban home in Bristol, England, where the grass was fake and people within were probably just as fake. Lily never put much interest into meeting her neighbors, unlike her nosy sister Petunia Evans. She was mousy and walked with jerky movements. Lily rolled off her bed and crawled over to her door opening it a crack and yelling.

"Yes mum!" she waited patiently for her mother to respond, she was never one for details or paying attention unlike Lily. She looked down at her finger nails that were painted a red color with yellow dots to show her school spirit. 'Pft, school spirit,' she thought to herself. She decided to call again for her mother,

"Mum! What is it!" she yelled a little louder this time. She saw her mother faintly at the foot of the stairs through the stair railing.

"Phone!" her mother returned to her kitchen, Lily never liked the idea of the whole 'soccer mom' field. She always needed to be somewhere, except in the summer, when she rarely ever did anything. Lily hauled herself up off the floor and bounded down the steps her red hair bouncing from shoulder to shoulder. She had grown a lot since her first year at school. Puberty sure did take a toll on her. She had grown much taller standing at five feet and six inches, her body easily proportioned from her generously sized chest to her flat stomach to her thin thighs. She had the appeal of a girl of 16, but the personality of a firecracker. Her green eyes pierced whatever they came across and she thanked Merlin for gaining her mothers proportions but her father's features, unlike her younger sister. Petunia always seemed to loath Lily for anything and everything. Lily recalled when she first got her letter from Hogwarts revealing that she was a witch; she also remembered that that was the day that she and Petunia stopped playing tag, dolls, board games, and tea parties. That was the day they stopped carrying a simple conversation at all.

Lily rounded the corner and came to the hallway phone where it was laying off the hook awaiting her. She picked it up and spoke as if her whole summer was full of adventure and exasperated tales of love and wonder. As if that would ever be her life.

"Mmm, Hullo?" she said calmly as she heard a girl rustling around on the phone before an answer.

"Lily?" the girl said. Lily knew who it was just from the tone of the voice. She smiled slightly and picked up a pencil tapping it against a note pad distractedly.

"Hey Meddie," Lily said cheerily fiddling with the phone cord, "How's your summer going so far?" She could hear Meddie squeal with excitement as she said back.

"Awesome! You won't believe the time I had in London this weekend! It was so fantastic!" she said, Lily could hear her bound around on her bed as if she could hardly wait to share the wonderful time she had and the beautiful people she encountered. Lily looked at the ceiling solemnly and said,

"I can only imagine. Who was all there? What ever did you do?" she seemed to say in false interest but hoped Meddie wouldn't catch on too soon. Lily had known her since she was a first year, they had made friends immediately and she was the closest thing to a best friend that Lily had ever known.

"The Marauders, of course!" Lily rolled her eyes and let her continue, "We had such a great time, and we cruised the streets and went shopping. Rosaleen was there and Kate, and Lucy. Oh Lily it was such a wonderful time! Sirius said he adored my outfit! And James! Oh Gosh! James could not stop asking about you, about your summer, of course I couldn't say much because I've been so busy, our phone calls have been sparse and far between, but gosh-," Lily stopped listening at that moment. Of course James had asked about her. The boy hadn't left her alone since his third year when he realized that being a teenager came with responsibilities, such as acknowledging girls and running a hand through ones hair whenever possible. Lily rolled her eyes and sighed, he had gotten on her nerves since that first day when he knocked her down in the hall their first year. As if that wasn't enough to hold a grudge he had proceeded in knocking the wrong chemicals in her cauldron, throwing an enchanted frog in her hair to latch on and make sure all the slime it possibly held was left on her head. He persisted in embarrassing her and trying to catch her attention. Around his fifth year he started to persistently ask her out and cut her off at every corner he could. Although he defended her every time someone provoked her or decided to label her a Mudblood, she hardly needed his help. She usually just skived him off leaving him with nothing more than an insult or a disgruntled gesture. She was snapped back to reality when she heard Meddie ask,

"So, how has your summer gone?" Lily dreaded this question but proceeded in telling her of the books she read, how far she had gotten on using charms and, of course, the lovely visit to the zoo with her family and two of Petunias closest friends. All she got out of that trip was a bad sunburn and whispers of being called a freak and outcast. Meddie didn't really respond to any of that, her concentration was mostly on what outfit to impress Sirius in the most and how her hair should look the next day. When Lily abruptly stopped her from saying she had to go to hang out with them the next day, Meddie made no complaint. Lily hung up the phone exaughsted from the social output she seemed obligated to give to her 'best friend'.

As she trudged back upstairs to her books and delightful enchantments she knocked into her sister who threw her a look of utter disgust, one that was hardly noticeable through the cake of make-up she had plastered over her face. Lily ignored it and pushed through her door, falling headfirst into her bed. Once her face was buried in the pillow she let out a scream that echoed only around her ears. Her owl, Blarney, turned his head over to her and gave a short hoot. Lily only hoped for this summer to be over with soon, so she could drag herself back to a normal life, one that was viewed as far from normal as possible in her family. As she lay there in the white depths of the pillow she only saw black tousled hair and hazel eyes. Her eyes widened and she mentally slapped herself; wow this summer really was getting to her.

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Lily stood at the wall before her which was named 'Platform nine and three quarters' in front of a dull looking mother, sulking sister, and an ecstatic father. He was the only one who seemed to appreciate his daughter's uniqueness. He drew her into a tight hug then handed her to her mother who gave her a polite and meek kiss. She just looked at Petunia, lifted slender fingers and waved. A grimace was compensation. She sighed and smiled to her family before she gave a short 'goodbye' and 'I love you's' walking through the platform rolling her cart with trunk, owl and tote bag. She looked around and found the conductor who gladly had someone take her bags and load them into a compartment, she made sure to remove her tote bag though saying she'd carry it with her. As she looked around on the platform she heard a loud shout and wave at the end of the platform, it was Meddie waving ecstacticly towards her as if her arm might fall off. 'How does this girl have this much energy?' she sighed softly to herself. She smiled and waved back before jogging over to her and embracing her in a hug. Meddie might have gone a little heavy on the perfume; Sirius must be around somewhere if Meddie was this dolled up. Meddie was going on about something or other before she heard the conductors whistle blow. A soft chill ran through her as she took her friends hand and boarded the train. They settled in a compartment, Meddie still going on, as Lily looked out the window of the train onto the almost empty platform. Just then she saw the Marauders dashing through the wall rushing down the platform, each looking disheveled and confused and she swore that James might still be in his pajama pants. She laughed and pointed out the window when Meddie inquired what was so funny. She then proceeded to join her giggles and watched as they practically through their stuff to the loaders. They then hopped on the train as it began to move and saw them dash down the hall by them. James held up when he noticed red hair and pulled open the door to their compartment.

"Say ladies, is this compartment full?" he flashed his mega watt smile and walked in as Meddie motioned for him to come in, Lily's cheeks were rosy with laughter but the smile was gone. The rest of the Marauders filed in. James graciously bowed and said to Lily

"Is this seat taken?" he motioned to the empty space beside her. Lily pulled her tote bag up and set it in the empty spot,

"As a matter of fact it is," she smirked and glared. James just smiled and said,

"Oh let me help you with that," he picked up her bag and stored it into an overhead compartment taking the seat next to her draping an arm around the back of the seat an inch or two above her shoulders. Her hostility kicked in full frontal. She looked over and glared at him, but his attention was no longer on her, but in the direction of his friends, joking and laughing as if what he just did was innocent as eating blueberry pie. The train was full speed now and students were starting to wander the halls of the train. Lily stood and said,

"Excuse me, I'm feeling sick," she made her way to the door as she could feel James' eyes on her back. He immediately got up and followed her. She rolled her eyes, how many hints did she have to give him honestly! As soon as she was out and down the hall he gently grabbed her arm. She spun around and jerked her arm free.

"Woah Evans, not even a 'hello' or an 'I sure did miss you Potter?' Where are your manners?" he smiled, the hint of teasing playing at his lips. Suddenly Lily's eyes were drawn to his lips, but her eyes jerked back up to his face, her once softened features hard as stone leaving only one emotion.

"I might have to ask the same about your manners Potter, touching me is something you should never do, now if you'll excuse me," she tried to turn and walk away but he slipped past her in front of her. A death glare came to her face as she said, "Move it Potter or you'll end up with eggs and toast all over your shirt," she seemed deadly serious but she wasn't sick, she just wanted to get away from this tempting individual before her conscious told her to do something that she would soon regret.

"As long as it belongs to you I'm fine, do you promise to faint in my arms afterwards?" he smiled again and she smirked pushing past him, she was at a loss for words, she had been lately. He persisted in jumping every way in which she tried to push through blocking her entry. When she stomped her foot much like a child, James getting the response he wanted out of her he graciously let her through. She hauled past him but he was close on her heels leaning to whisper in her ear.

"So Evans, where should our new make out spot be?" she felt his breath on her ear and raised her hand to hit him in the face, he faltered for a moment but kept after her until she bolted into the trains bathroom and shut the door quickly behind her and bolting the door shut. She breathed a sigh of relief in this cramped bathroom. She leaned against the wall and looked at her reflection in the mirror, she was definitely flushed from playing her little games with Potter but she ran her hands over her cheeks anyways. When she turned to open the door as best she could she saw Potter striking an unlikely pose against the doorframe; elbow leaning on the doorframe, his whole body at a slanted position, one heel crossed across the other, his hand on the back of his neck and his other hand resting on his waist. She caught her breath as his eyes glided up her meeting her face. He smiled softly this time, Lily thinking she saw a glimmer of tenderness in his eyes. She realized her face must be a bit astonished so she turned it back to a glare. As she tried to push past him he stopped her standing straight holding her waist to stop her. She looked at him aghast and said a bit exasperated,

"What is it Potter?' a bit of desperate need coated her tone. James was surprised by this strange sound and watched her vulnerability quickly thicken. He smiled and said letting his hand rest on her hip. Her eyes slowly looked down to his hand then back to his face a little lost for words, once again.

"I missed you Evans," the sincerity in his voice was enough to drive a steak through her heart. She was not to be swept away by such false charm, but before she knew it his arms were wrapped around her his body pressed against her, every muscle he possessed pressed against her and she looked up at him, she felt like she was in a dream, and she suddenly felt numb, warm, comfortable, and wanted. She couldn't shake this particular feeling. Wait, wasn't she just in a heated round of insults with him just a few moments ago? All logical thoughts seemed to filter out of her brain though. She only saw tousled black hair, and hazel eyes, before soft lips met hers. She felt her arms rise up his chest and move around his neck, her body pressing harder to his, her breath heated against his lips as soft kisses moved around her lips.

Softly, slowly, he caressed her with his lips. But suddenly she heard a soft urgent voice in her head. She tried to ignore it, but the voice was growing louder. Pounding against the inner walls of her skull, the voice was at a scream now over and over it yelled, 'Lily! Wake up!' her eyes shot open and she found herself in the same compartment. Meddie was talking with Lucy and Rosaleen. Kate, like her was sleeping as soft rain pattered the windows. She looked around indifferently not sure when it was she fell asleep. She was disappointed. 'Wait! Disappointed in what! That it was just a dream? Or that you didn't know when you fell asleep?' her conscious asked. Lily shook her head and smiled at Meddie who continued on with Sirius Black. 'Could this girl not shut up about him already?' she sighed and rolled her head over to lay her forehead on the cool glass.

"A dream," she muttered.

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In a couple compartments over James shot up from his soft slumber. His best friends were trying to catch Bertie Botts every flavor beans in their mouth. He rubbed his forehead and sighed. Had he just been dreaming about her again? All summer she had plagued his dreams. He then looked to his hand that had black smudges all over it. His friends around him began to laugh as Sirius pointed to his face. Remus was chuckling in amusement as Peter tried to imitate the same hearty laugh as Sirius. James checked his reflection in the window of the train and let out a bark of laughter. All over his forehead and face were profanities and obscene words describing James and what he liked to do. He immediately turned around to tackle Sirius and proceed to punch him in his sides playfully. All the other boys joined in resulting in a dog pile on top of each other. James had found the marker that was used to deface his own face and began to mark on every bit of flesh he could see; coloring one whole side of Sirius' face a dark purple. They ended in laughter on their seats and finished off their masterpieces to each other by adding more obscene words.

Deciding to show off their new looks they walked out of the compartment and down the hall of the train stopping when girls turned their heads to wave. Sirius stopped at one girl when she asked what was on his face; he then inquired her of what she was talking about and scratched the tip of the penis that lay drawn on his face. He shrugged and carried on, the boys walking with a smirk on their lips. For once the prank was played on them, only to be played by themselves. Soon an immense laughter filled the train as they showed off their faces, people peaking out of their compartments to joke and laugh. Lily poked her head out of the compartment and upon seeing James, she blushed. He caught her eye and winked. For a moment, Lily actually thought he knew what she had been thinking, and dreaming. But she shook that thought shortly after realizing the silliness that she was conveying upon her own thoughts.

She rested back in the compartment and shook her head. Somehow she knew this was going to be a different kind of year. Good? Sure why not? Bad? Define bad if you will. Whatever it was, it was different, and change was all Lily wanted.

"Different," she whispered as the rain splattered against the cold window.


	2. Weeds grow higher

**Authors Note:** _Thank you for all of your reviews! They made me smile and really encouraged me to keep on with this story! And thanks for all who put me on alert! Shows you care to read! Xo._

**Disclaimer:** _Mmmm, I still don't own Harry Potter series, but you know I'm working on it! Xo._

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Chapter 2; Weeds grow higher.

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As the Hogwarts Express pulled into the station of Hogwarts, Lily and her friends were putting their final touches onto their robes. Lily attached her Prefect badge to her chest and sighed some. Her eyes followed her friends; who laughed and joked with each other from the excitement of the new year. Meddie turned to look at her and asked,

"You ready Lils?" she smiled triumphantly as if she held a dirty secret, but that always seemed the expression of her one close friend. Lily nodded, plastering a smile on her face as they emerged out of their compartment. Lily, tote bag at her side, looked around the train to find the it crowded, as usual, with all of its patrons moving around. Lily and her friends pushed their way past their peers and the younger ones and almost threw themselves off the train as they were given a light shove onto the platform. Lily and Meddie hurried over to one of the carriages and hopped in, it happened to be raining and the short time while they were out there, Lily had gotten soaked. Her robes stuck to her body in an uncomfortable fashion. She was just in the middle of running a hand through her wet, now tangled, locks when two boys hopped into the other side of the carriage as it started to pull away. Lily's heart started to beat a little faster and her mouth formed into its automatic frown at the sight of him. James and Sirius were laughing and shaking off their wet hair. Meddie had posed, as if in a picture, and laughed like a troubled child as she pushed up on her breasts. Lily rolled her eyes as Sirius winked to Meddie.

"Lily," James breathed, he was out of breath from sprinting from the train and trudging through the sludge that surrounded the carriage trail. The carriage was bouncing back and forth as Lily acknowledged him with a glare. At that moment, she felt like her sister and quickly let her face drop. That was the last thing she ever wanted, to be like her sister Petunia. James just smiled to her and watched her as her cheeks began to burn; she finally looked up after a full five minutes and all but screamed over the roar of the rain,

"What!" she snapped. James just continued to smile at her and shook his head saying gently.

"Just wanted to say you look great, Evans," he smirked and she made an ugly face at him sticking her tongue out, which was a bad move because James added quickly, "If your going to stick your tongue out, might as well make good use of it." Lily's tongue quickly vanished and she looked out the side of the carriage, the lights of Hogwarts casting down on her. James watched how her face suddenly glowed in the soft lamp light and he smiled to himself before turning back to Sirius who had the Marauders Map folded in his hands, trying to get a jump start on finishing it. Once the carriage lurched to a stop Lily sprang out of the carriage and began her way forward. Meddie scrambled after her friend looking back sadly as she was leaving Sirius, but the two followed close behind as the other Marauders joined them. Lily didn't notice how fast she was walking until her footing suddenly slipped on the muddy grass. Before she knew it she was tumbled backwards heading for a large puddle of mud and rain water. She gave out a short cry and closed her eyes waiting for the worst until she felt a pair of arms wrap around her; catching her easily. She opened one eye at first to look up at the person who had saved her from a watery end and saw that it was none other than James Potter himself smiling down at her. She sighed, disgruntled, and heaved herself up with the help of James and spun around to look at him.

"Thanks," she muttered under her breath almost unheard.

"What was that Evans? Did I sense gratitude?" he held a hand to his ear and she had half the reason to sock him, but she just turned on her heel and made her way inside. James caught up to her though and the fleeting frustration that she always felt washed over her. Her body became stiff though when she felt an arm draped around her. She quickly withdrew from his grasp and reconsidered punching him in the face.

"Don't touch me," she muttered angrily, but James held that sloppy grin on his face and said cautiously,

"Aw, come on Lils. Can't I show a little friendship? A truce? A little…love?" he smiled and replaced his hand on her shoulder. She turned around and shoved his chest as hard as she could but didn't succeed in making him fall very far.

"Grow up, Potter!" she spat. James' face suddenly fell as if she had just shot him with a silver bullet. She ignored it and marched through the front doors and sighed with relief as she turned to see him regroup with his friends. That look on his face seemed so real, but she knew James had no true feelings towards anything, including her. She squeezed the water out of her hair and sat in a spot at the Gryffindor table. Her stomach rattled beneath her ribs and she put a hand to her forehead. Meddie, Kate, and Rosaleen soon joined her; the Marauders not far behind.

The sorting of the new first years went on without much interest and when the food finally appeared after Dumbledore's speech everyone was jumping from their seats to plow through. But as the feast drew to an end Lily felt someone brush past her. She turned to see a strange looking girl, one who she had never seen before, pass by. She had long black silken hair and was dressed in tattered muggle clothes. There was no wand as far as she could see, and when the girl turned to look at her Lily noticed electric grey eyes. The girl just winked at her with her hands in her back pockets and proceeded to approach Dumbledore. Lily turned to look at Sirius and saw him looking after the girl as she passed.

"Do you know her?" Lily asked. This startled Sirius because Lily never said anything to the Marauders unless she had too. Lily had asked because the girl resembled Sirius what with the hair and the aura she produced. Sirius shook his head at a loss for words. When Lily looked back the girl was gone and she shook her head some. 'Different' she remembered saying on the train, and now, she believed that to be completely true.

When the feast finally dwindled and people were leaving, Lily stood to join the rest of her friends and follow them out into the corridor that would lead them to their appointed house. Peeves fluttered over head with an arm load of water balloons. Lily picked up the pace as they jogged up the stairs. James drew her by the arm and pulled her aside. A disgusted look was fallen onto her face.

"Stalking is illegal you know?" she said, pronuciating all her words so as he wouldn't mistake them.

"It's not considered stalking when you have good intentions in mind," he smiled shoving his hands in his pockets but ready to pull them out at any time if she should try to leave. She just crossed her arms and waited for these so called 'good intentions' to fall from this playboy's mouth. He opened his mouth to say something but nothing came out.

"That's what I thought," Lily said in disbelief walking off. He grabbed for her arm and said hastily,

"Wait!" as she turned he put his hand on the back of his head, ruffling the feathery locks he inherited from his father. Lily rolled her eyes as he continued, "Uh, I'm really glad to see you again. I mean, you look- you look great," he breathed, smiling softly. She tilted her head not understanding where he was heading, "And I was just wondering, well if you'd like to go to Madame Rosmerta's with me on our first visit to Hogsmeade," he smiled his confidence regained and his arrogance shining through his eyes. Like she'd give this bloke the satisfaction of a date with her? How would that prove her point of not liking him if she agreed? Yet she desperately wished to say yes and just see what it would be like, as crazy as that sounds. Suddenly, someone behind her put a hand on her shoulder and said gently, as if singing even,

"Yes, she'd LOVE too!" the voice was convincing and soft as James looked to the mysterious person behind her and then back to Lily. Lily's mouth was open uttering words not known to this language and James said,

"Great!" satisfied with that answer, even if it wasn't from Lily herself, and hurried off with a new stride. She thought she saw his head swell just a bit more. Lily then rounded on the person behind her and saw that it was the strange girl from the Great Hall.

"Wha-what? Who are you and why do you think you have any business in arranging dates for me when I clearly was going to say that I was not interested," Lily said, her face growing redder by the second. The girl just tilted her head and replied simply.

"I'm Lela Grace dear and I do have business in arranging dates for you because you clearly wanted to say yes but knew his ego would boost to high for your tastes, so instead of giving him a chance you were going to blow him off only leaving him to prey on you further and persist," the girl finished graciously, taking in a deep breath. She gave a soft smile and held out her hand for Lily to shake. Lily was astonished at her boldness and ability to just read her like that.

"Uh," she went into her unidentifiable rants as the girl named Lela gave a wave of her hand and a short laugh,

"No need to reply dear, you're Gryffindor right?" Lily just nodded following as the girl walked up to the portrait of the Fat Lady and chanted the password in a sing song voice. The Fat Lady opened the door and smiled down to her as she walked through to the common room where people were chattering. At her presence everyone turned to look. She dopily waved her hand and smiled to the crowd. Lily grabbed her arm and dragged her up to the girl's dorm, obviously regaining speech ability. She shoved her into the room and started on a rant of how she couldn't believe a complete stranger would do something like that and how furious she was,

"I'm just-just-just so furious with you! I don't even know you! Why am I having this conversation?" Lily said in disbelief.

"Well, you're mad at me but-," Lela said before she was cut off again.

"But! But nothing, '_Lela_'. You just ruined a life long work of pushing that arrogant bastard away from me for good. Now he thinks he has a chance and now I'll never shake him! Thanks! Thanks a whole lot," Lily flopped on the bed and Lela came over her face and said,

"You know you want to laugh about it though," she smiled and Lily suddenly started giggling. Lela, satisfied, smiled and stood saying, "Good it's settled then! You'll go on that date with what's-his-face, and have a romantic adventure!" girls started to file into the dormitory, obviously turning in after the long train ride and ignored the two chattering. Lily shook her head.

"Oh no, no, no, no, no. No way am I ever going to go on a date with him. He's horrible! You don't even know him! He hasn't left me alone since our third year and he makes my life and school work tens times more difficult than you could ever imagine. If you ask me he's just an arrogant little prat, that hasn't grown out of his training pants yet," she concluded. Lela had gotten up and walked to the open door and looked down the stairs distractedly only to find James at the bottom looking discouraged and quite sad. Lela opened her mouth to say something but she turned to Lily and said,

"I think you're afraid of what he might make you feel," Lela saluted her and bounded down the stairs calling back up, "You're going on that date Lillian Evans!" she then rounded the corner patting James on the shoulder and walked out of the portrait hole. Lily got up suddenly very confused at how that girl knew her name when she was almost sure she hadn't mentioned it in their entire awkward yet productive conversation. She walked to the door and looked down the stairs saying

"I don't even know you!" she spotted James and said softly, knowing he had heard her words, "Oh Potter," she put a hand to her forehead and let out an angry sound that rose in her throat.

"Save it Evans. Maybe I'll just work on getting out of those trainers," he walked away and Lily found herself thinking 'Why is he taking it so hard? It isn't like I haven't said things like that to him before, jeez. Like he even cares what I say.' She then turned on her heel and walked to her bed saying a little to loudly,

"Different! Why can't it be Different!" she stirred some of the other girls in their sleep getting a hefty

"Shut up Lily!" from a girl she had never met. She was beginning to feel like she hadn't really met anyone here. But that one girl named Lela; she had caught her and probably put a change in her. Lily felt a changing growing inside her already. What power did that girl possess? 'Pft, please she's just some new girl,' she thought. Yet she couldn't shake the mystery from her mind of where that girl had come from, and why she seemed so willing to help her with James where she clearly didn't need help.

She fell onto her bed and once more, a soft sound erupted from her throat echoing only to her ears. It had been building up ever since the platform; she definitely needed to scream in a more private area.

As Lily drifted off to sleep all she saw was black tousled hair, and hazel eyes that looked at her in a new light. Disappointment? Couldn't be. And anyways, who cared how that Potter looked at her anyways? It didn't mean anything to her of what he maybe thought about her.

Or, maybe it did. Lily rolled over making one final growl and headed off to sleep.


	3. Grass worth Mowin

**Authors Note: ** _Once again you guys are awesome!_

_Jmarit17: Thanks so much your comment was great, I'm glad you loved it and I'm definitely working on more, just takes time with summer reading and all._

_BeautyandtheMess: great name by the way, and yes I loved the whole late for everything. You'll see later on that the Marauders aren't quite punctual for any matter._

_Lotteda: I think it's awesome too! My first fanfic with James and Lily. _

_Animerockstar: I'm trying so hard not to disappoint you guys! I'll write as fast as time allows me! Promise!_

_Red head but not a weasely: Thanks so much! I adore conflict; it's what makes the world go round! Xo!_

_Monkey-see-monkey-do: quite old chap! I believe the story to have a bit of pizzaz! Haha xo!_

_Once again thanks so much and sorry if I'm not updating fast enough, lots of birthdays in July and summer reading is creeping up on me, not enough hours in the day, but I promise I'll get it done! Xo all! Keep reading!_

**Disclaimer:** _I do not own HP, but I'll settle for James. JK I'm taking you to court! Ha xo._

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Chapter 3: Grass worth Mowin'

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Lily awoke the next morning to a grave and dismal sky. The windows were dripping with condensation of the early morn and most of the girls were not awake. Yet Lily quickly moved into the bathroom discarded of her clothes and stepped into the warm mist of the shower. The tiny droplets moved their way down sentual curves, she sighed as milky white skin was covered in foam, following its way down to the rusted drain that soaked away the evening before. Hurt and disgust overwhelmed her and she let the steamy water engulf her face and roll down her cheeks. Something was wrong with her, as she stepped out of the shower wrapping a soft towel around her body she turned to look in the long stretch mirror and sigh at her face. Her cheeks were rosy, her eyes more vibrant, her hair just a brighter shade of red. She tilted her head some and smiled feeling a radiation of satisfaction and heartfelt warmness seeping down to her toes. She dressed down in muggle jeans that hugged her figure and a grey shirt that embellished Gryffindor House pride putting her cloak over it and black shoes. She whispered a short spell to dry her hair letting it fall straight as she walked quietly out of the girl's dorm. The sun was peeking over the Forbidden Forest and the fire was crackling with long since gone out embers. She hurried out the portrait hole her feet memorized to the long trodden path to the Great Hall. She sighed some as she looked up to see only a few people and some teachers. Classes didn't start today since it was first day back and she was handed her schedule when McGonagall passed her. She sighed looking over her classes; once again potions with Slytherin. When she looked up she saw that girl; Lela was her name. She was walking down the long stretch of stone towards her sipping a coffee; she had her Gryffindor tie tied around her head like a headband, which accented her black hair quite nicely. She smiled to her and her eyes held a bit of a confused look, clouded and murky. Lily smiled awkwardly to her and sat down. Lela sat on the table quietly facing towards the Slytherin table.

"Classes suck this semester?" Lela inquired in between sips of mocha goodness. Lily nodded her head slowly and put a hand to her forehead. Lela just nodded her eyes quickly glancing around as if expecting some huge disaster any moment. Lily turned to her and said softly,

"I felt terrible this morning. Why did you have to start everything up with Potter? I don't know who you are or why you're so interested in getting me to notice him," Lily said her eyes full of hurt and disappointment. To her dismay, Lela didn't even look at her as she said,

"I already told you who I am; Lela Grace, and maybe I'm so interested because maybe I just might get something out of it in return," a smile played at her lips as Lily's face washed over disgusted,

"Oh my Gosh you know him don't you? You're one of his groupies?" Lily said scooting away some. Lela let out of a laugh.

"Merlin, no! I was joking about the whole 'me getting something out of it' thing. Gullible. Maybe I just care about things not worth caring about," Lela said half heartedly.

"Strange thing to care about," Lily sighed as she munched a biscuit turning to face the crowd. Lela just shrugged and glanced to the door quietly as more people filed in chattering a little too loud for so early in the morning. "Why would you want to be friends with someone like me? Surely after you saw how I treated Potter you would know when to back off," Lily said taking a final bite and moving on to a bowl of cereal.

"What would it matter when I chose to become your friend? Maybe I just wanted to be a part of something. I would have said something to you sooner or later, so leave it at that will you?" she smiled a little unconvincingly with her tone as Lily said,

"Fine, where are you from?" she decided to start with the basics; she was startled when Lela spewed her coffee all over a passing Slytherin. She smiled and waved softly turning to her and saying,

"You don't want to know; no suburbs that's for sure," she laughed at her own little joke as Lily shrugged seeing her try to play the victim, which was far from how she lived.

"What classes do you have then?" she was tiring of this game with her, as Lela handed Lily her schedule and hopped up setting down her coffee and putting her hands on her hips. Lily quirked an eyebrow when she said in almost disbelief, "Not bad, all advanced. We have potions though, and Divination." She nodded some and stood with her as they walked towards the Gryffindor tower. She looked over at Lela in a strange way seeing something beyond really seeing. Her aura shot a sense of pain inside her and she shook her head as they entered the common room. She looked towards the message board where one solitary paper hung announcing the first visit to Hogsmeade in two weeks for third through seventh years only. Lela smiled and turned to her saying,

"The sooner the better," and Lily partially agreed; the sooner she could get this over with, the sooner she could get back to ditching Potter. Wait, why did she even agree to this one date? Technically she didn't but she couldn't say anything now, as much as she hated to say it, she really didn't want to see that look on Potter's face again. It was enough to crush every bone in her body, strangely enough.

Clouds began to roll in as she sighed some looking out the window softly, eyes on her from the boy's dorm. She looked up the stairs to see Potter, and before her vision rose a slender figure with black hair; Lela was climbing the stairs to the boy's dorm. What! Lily looked quickly to Lela and so did James who looked just as startled.

"Lela!" Lily called, but no reaction came from the swinging hips, as Lily ascended towards her trying to grab at the hem of her cloak. She pushed past James smiling and Lily heard a noise erupt from the boy's dorm, shrieks and screams, a rustling of clothes hampers and trunks. Lily winced and looked up assuming to see her standing at the door aghast, but she had disappeared further. Lily climbed the rest of the way saying "Excuse me," shielding her eyes like blinders as she called "Lela! What in the world do you think-," but she was abruptly stopped when James grabbed her arm so as not to let her go tumbling down a long stairway that seemed to be in the middle of the floor. This was getting stranger by the minute. She turned to look at James only to find his shirt was off revealing all those contouring muscles, his hair dripping from just getting out of the shower. A pair of jeans donned his lower body, which she was thankful for (to a degree) so as not to see a towel that could easily slip. Her eyes slowly followed up his torso and up to his face where she blushed profusely. Lily swallowed hard and James just put on that sloppy Potter grin he always with held.

"Like what you see Evans?" he said gaining that ridiculous arrogance back so as to impress his friends, no doubt.

"Hardly," Lily through back at him. Her attention was drawn to footsteps coming up from behind her, Lela passed holding a book in her hands that was covered in cobwebs and looked at Lily.

"Getting all hot and bothered already? Not until the second date I'm afraid," she giggled and nodded to the half naked boys around the room, "Cheerio boys," as she descended down the main staircase to the boy's dorm. Lily was at a loss for words at the moment. Her cheeks were burning and she was almost positive that she would surely burst into flames at any moment. A hand snaked its way around her waist pulling her up to a naked torso. Lily held her breath as James said quietly for only her ears,

"I can't wait for our date," he winked and Lily's hand was no sooner across his cheek than she was marching down the stairs. James was left dumbfounded holding his cheek affectionately. He looked around to his comrades as they all burst out in laughter after a few moments of silence. James grimaced and gestured to them as he walked to his trunk covering the rest of his almighty nakedness.

Lily followed Lela back out the portrait hole, down the changing staircases and out the doors to the grounds. Lela was still thumbing through the book she had retrieved from the boy's dorm when they were treading across the wet grass. Lily was yelling furiously about how embarrassed she was and how she would never show her face in the dorm's again when Lela rounded saying,

"Why would you be embarrassed if you didn't care what James or any of them thought about you?" Lela quirked a brow and smiled mischieviousely, "Haha, got you there," Lela declared as Lily stumbled over words to explain but found she couldn't. she shook her head assuring herself that this sudden lack for words would pass, but when it didn't she looked up at the sky saying stupidly,

"It looks like it's going to rain Lela." Why was she on a first name basis with this girl? She hardly knew her, but she felt that she would be seeing a lot more of her, whether she wanted to her not. She was drawn to people like this, with something extra to them. Lela glanced up and shrugged heading farther down when suddenly somebody was jogging up beside her. Lily turned to see it was none other than that infamous prat Potter. She sighed and folded her arms. A small smile grew across Lela's face and when Lily looked up next, she was gone. James trotted next to her saying as he shoved his hands deep within his pockets.

"Hey there Evans," he grinned and looked to her. Lily suddenly stopped and said,

"Do you get some sort of sick pleasure out of tormenting me?" he noticed that her eyes seemed to glow when she was angry,

"Now I wouldn't consider it tormenting, Evans. You just have to look on the Brightside of things don't you think?" he grinned. Thunder rolled up ahead as he turned to face her now.

"Brightside? There is no Brightside when it involves you, Potter," she said almost with regret. It was getting harder to insult him after she felt so changed. James looked up to the darkened sky as a single raindrop fell.

"Maybe we should head inside, wouldn't want your pretty little head catching a cold so close to our play date," he said. Lily was absolutely furious as she grabbed him by the collar. James was almost amused by it all when he saw the sincerity in her eyes.

"Listen Potter, I'm not doing this because I want to, I'm doing this because I have to," Lily said not even convincing herself.

"Oh are you? And who said you have to?" he said hoping she wouldn't take it back. But once again Lily Marie Evans was at a loss for words. A sudden downpour drenched them both and Lily sighed looking to her feet, could this possibly get any worse? She felt a finger tuck under her chin and pull her face up to look at the one above her.

"Evans," he said with so much emotion Lily thought she'd be spinning in a world of confusion until the day she died. Suddenly he was leaning into her, his other arm wrapping around her waist, tucking comfortably into the small of her back. The fists that were clenched on his shirt collar were now slowly moving their way up to the back of his wet neck. His lips connected and glued to hers as she felt a surge of warmth flow over her taking her away from the cold rain. She sighed as her body molded against his and he gladly held her to him as his tongue cautiously pressed on her lips. She opened them to him as raindrops slid their way down their cheeks into their mouths mixing with the array of emotion spilling between the too. This was crazy, she was caught up in Potter out in the rain, pressed against him, come on Lily gain that thought process back, her conscious urged. But Lily was having none of it. She seemed stuck to him the raindrops as their material of bonding. She breathed softly into him and he breathed off of her, her lips never leaving his. His hands pressed on the small of her back cradling her into his hips so she could feel his heat; the heat she had caused him; the passion he was dieing to let out to her. She sighed softly in his kisses until the rain suddenly stopped. The moment lost with the fallen raindrops. Her eyes opened and she pulled away her lips swollen and pink from their heavy exercise. She was still tangled up in him when he opened his eyes to look at her. He smiled seductively and she thought her brain would short circuit again until she heard voices from the steps of the castle. She regretingly untangled herself from his limbs as he said softly in a raspy voice,

"Wait," she turned to look at him and simply said in a soft tone that could be mistaken for sadness,

"No." and made her way up to the castle in a hurried pace, leaving James in a world of sensation, emotion, and utter happiness. He just kissed Lily Evans in the rain. Little Evans, the one he tried to get the attention of days on end. His clothes weighed him down, but moments ago he could have sworn he was floating on air.

What a day, and it wasn't even eleven am. He smirked and shoved his hands back into his pockets making his way to Gryffindor Tower to change. The wet look definitely worked for him, as well as Lily, he thought significantly.


	4. Is that a flower I see?

**Authors Note: **_You guys rock hardcore._

**x.Little.Black.Cat.x:**_ rock on for motivation. Loved your 14th installment by the way. _

_Xo to all who commented already, I'm writing for you! _

_Extra Note: Okay if this thing didn't take like 6 hours to show the next chapter you'd be on like chapter 15. Yay for _

**Disclaimer: I don't own Hp yadadadada.**

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**Chapter 4; Is that a flower, I see?**

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As Lily trudged back up the stone steps past passerby's she put a hand to her forehead, which was remarkably hot. Potter hadn't made her feel that way, had he? She pushed past clumps of people trying to make their way onto the glorious morning grounds, tagged by none other than Lily Evans and James Potter. Oh God, was she proud of it?

Yep.

Oh god. Her cheeks flushed, her face probably fell to the floor. Her breathing soon increased to a heavy pant and she had to stop halfway up the stairs. I believe this is called hyperventilating. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath; what was she getting so worked up over; The fact that she had just full on assaulted James Potter with her tongue, or the fact that she enjoyed it? She made it up the rest of the staircase without much struggle, practically falling headfirst through the portrait hole where her 'friends' were laughing and joking. Meddie turned to look at her first,

"Hey there Lils', you alright?" a worried look replaced her secretive one when she noticed how wet Lily was. Lily had completely forgotten about the downpour and her sodden clothes; and not many people can forget that their suddenly twenty pounds heavier due to their clothes. She put on a smile and said,

"Oh, I'm fine, just caught up in the rainstorm. Uh- I'm going to change now," she hurried up the stairs sloshing water all the way. When she burst into the girl's dorm, Lela was sitting on her bed flipping through the pages of her mysterious book she had obtained from the boys dorm earlier that morning nonchalantly,

"Enjoy yourself?" she said yawning and sitting up to read an excerpt. Lily shot her a glare not willingly to explain herself as she hurried to take her second shower of the day and into some comfy red and gold striped pajama pants, compliments of the several hours she had spent in the Hogwarts common room sowing the comfortable fabric together. She donned a baggy white t-shirt, planning on not leaving the girl's dorm for the rest of the night and plopped on the bed next to Lela who had somehow gotten a hold of another coffee. Lily tried to sneak a peek at what she was reading but she just got a shake of the finger from Lela. She backed off and laid her head on the soft pillow behind her, her hair up in a messy bun. Lela looked over at her as if she hadn't seen her in a year and said,

"What are you doing here?" Lily just laughed and shook her head but Lela continued, "So how did it go? I was right, hm?" she smiled softly and stood fluffing her hair imitating, "Oh James, you're so handsome, how could I ever have doubted your almighty power over mwah? I'd like to thank the greatest friend I've ever had! Lela Grace," she then proceeded in blowing kisses around the room. Lily laughed and said,

"A little far fetched don't you think?" Lela looked at her dumbstruck and said softly,

"Not really, that's what I'd say at least," she exaggerated,

"Well you're right, that's EXACTLY how it went," Lily rolled her eyes and rolled off the bed pounding the floor saying more to the floorboards than anything, "Am I pathetic?"

"What would happen if I said yes?" Lela said ruffling her black hair, Lily growled from behind the bed, "Um, no you are not pathetic," she said half heartedly opening the door to look down the stairs.

"Could you at least sound half as convincing as when you're talking to a brick wall?" Lily emerged from behind the bed only to find Lela enthralled in her book once again. Curiosity overwhelmed Lily, "What are you reading for Merlin's sake?" Lela was swaying herself back and forth while flipping through the pages. She glanced up and said slowly,

"It's something my mother left me a long time ago," Lily stilled was confused and it didn't quite answer her question of what it was exactly. Lela turned the book around which had precarious drawings, stances, and notes filling from top to bottom, page to page, "I'm not exactly a witch." Lily quirked a brow and Lela sipped down the rest of her coffee saying gently as if speaking to a child, "Let's leave the rest for another time shall we?" she snapped the book shut and dust engulfed it as it disappeared. Lily looked at her strangely as she said in her normal voice, "Look it's almost lunch! Let's sneak down to the kitchens shall we?" Lela grabbed her hand before she had any time to object as she was being tugged down the stairs, barefoot, hair wet and messy, and just her luck there was James and the Marauders sitting on the couch conversing about something or other.

"Oh jeez," Lily whispered under her breath. Each and every Marauders eyes followed her and Lela as they walked past. She probably looked like hell, and for good reason, she had been knocked off her feet rather than swept with that kiss that James delivered, it really packed a punch to her conscious. James watched her walk by with a sincere smile and a blush crept across her cheeks, as they exited the portrait hole Lily yanked her hand free of Lela's grasp and said keeping up with her quick pace,

"If you hadn't noticed, I wasn't really dressed for escapades outside of our dorm," Lily took her wet hair down so as to make her look a little more presentable.

"And why do we care again?" Lela asked turning abruptly and jogging the rest of the corridor. When they came to a halt in front of a portrait of a fruit basket Lily continued,

"Because, after what happened, you'd think I'd want to keep at least a decent reputation by looking halfway decent," Lily suddenly looked around and said confused, "Wait, this isn't the Great Hall."

"How would we get food at 11:30, when lunch doesn't start until noon unless we go down into the kitchens? And trust me dear, no ones looking at how you present yourself, they're looking at how you react, facial wise," Lela tickled the pear softly and smiled as the portrait swung open. She descended down a pair of stairs as Lily followed. When Lily emerged from the dark damp depths of the staircase, she was surrounded by thousands of house elves, tantalizing aromas, the clanging of pots and pans and the incessant chattering of worried house elves. Lela had made her way across the floor past these scattering house elves to one small house elf inparticular. She leaned down and patted the small thing on the head saying to it to fetch her some sandwiches, soup and drinks for her and Lily. The house elf clasped its hands together, happy to help and scurried off; Lela returned grabbing her hand and taking her to a table that wasn't so crowded to wait for their food. Lily turned to her saying,

"Do you know that house elf?" Lily asked still amazed at the sight, she had heard the Marauders talking about this but she really didn't give it a second thought as to actually go and look.

"Oh, yeah, that's Monsiuer Mulldendoom, he was my mother's. She was big on names," Lily nodded a bit dazed as the one named Monsiuer Mulldendoom came and gave her a large plate of crisp sandwiches of all kinds, two soups and a cooler of questionable drinks. Lily looked at her strangely as Lela motioned for her to grab the plate of sandwiches as she picked up the soups with her other hand. They walked back up the stairs, out the portrait hole and up the changing staircases to their dorm without much discussion other than Lela explaining further of how Monsiuer landed in the kitchen. He was loyal enough, but also a threat at revealing what didn't need to be said. As they pushed past the portrait after muttering the password and into the common room, they noticed only three of the Marauders were left sitting on the couch, James, Sirius and Remus. Lela came and sat down on the couch that also seated a sleeping Sirius, as Lily was stuck choosing where to sit. She settled for the floor when she noticed that James and Sirius were sleeping, while Remus was caught up in a book.

"Where's that skitzo kid?" Lela said breaking open the cooler and handing Lily a drink that looked much like alcohol but fruity. Remus peered over his book and said softly,

"Dunno," as he went back to his book, Lily shook the drink in front of her face saying,

"Before I decide to do something stupid, what exactly is this?" Lela took the bottle and opened it for her saying,

"It's a healthy carbonated fruit drink containing only eight percent of alcohol," Lela beamed taking a swig as she reached for a sandwich and crunched it between her lips, "It won't get you drunk, if that's what you're wondering."

"You're a bad influence," Lily said as she took a swig and piled into her broccoli and cheese soup. They ate quietly until Sirius awoke to Lela moving around on the couch. He sat up and looked around saying sleepily,

"Where's Wormtail?" James awoke to his friend's sudden loudness as Lily tipped back some more of her arousing drink. She had moved onto a sandwich as he looked at her saying quietly,

"Hey Evans," he smiled as her hair seemed to glow behind her from the soft firelight. They had drawn the curtains so the common room was immersed in darkness with only the firelight to show them around the room. Lily waved her hand that held the bottle of delicious drink and smiled in between bites of her wonderful sandwich. Was everything this wonderful all the time?

"That's what those two asked when they came in," Remus said motioning to Lily and Lela. James and Sirius shot each other looks as they both glanced to Remus.

"You mean you weren't watching him?" Sirius exclaimed as Lela chugged the rest of her drink popping open another. Lily looked at Lela and smiled who winked at her. James looked at Lily and said slowly,

"What are you drinking Evans?" he eyed her suspiciously as Lily held up the bottle looking at the label saying,

"Malicious Mockerin Ale," she smiled and shook it at him, "Want some?" James got up off his chair and came to her taking the bottle and smelling it, "Hey get your own," she said smiling still. Her eyes weren't quite glazed over, just enough to make her a bit incoherent. He looked to Lela who shrugged her shoulders and took another bite of a sandwich.

"Ale Lela?" James said in disbelief, "You dare bring ale in this tower? Where's the real stuff?" he smirked. Lela laughed and said normally.

"We can't break anything out yet, I told her she wouldn't get drunk off of this stuff, and she won't, but if we bring out the hard stuff, she'll be tempted, end up doing something she'll regret, and wake up with a massive hang over and hatred for me." James shrugged and said a little disappointed,

"Another night then I suppose, don't give her anymore," Lily stood and wavered slightly smiling. James came over to her holding onto her arm so if she fell he could catch her.

"I don't think this was a good idea," Lily said quietly as she looked to James. Remus shut his book and looked to Sirius who gave a wave and said nonchalantly,

"Full moon tonight, wouldn't want to be late," Sirius said waving to James. James brought Lily to sit on a couch where she persisted in trying to play thumb wars with him. He sat down, her legs over his lap, his arm on the back of the couch as they locked hands looking aggressively at their thumbs.

Four rounds of thumb wrestling, six games of wizarding chess, nine games of war, and three games of old maid later, the sun was creeping behind the hills and the moon was shining bright through the windows that had been thrown open. Lela had left long ago, Lily forgot when, and people had come and gone not really paying attention to James and Lily. Her friends even walked into the common room and stayed for awhile, but didn't dare interrupt their games. Soon James and Lily were just exchanging jokes and stories they had. James telling her about the time Sirius and him tricked Peeves into egging McGonagall's dorm room, and found out that it was Filch's instead. Lily told him about the time she and her sister got into a fight about who should get the shower first, and only the fastest would win the rights to have the shower first in the mornings, so it was muggle against witch, and it spanned out over a month in the summer. In the end Lily gained rights to the bathroom first by default of her sister, who gave up. Petunia was never one to follow through. Lily insisted that she take a look at James hand showing him all the details that he never paid attention too. The birthmark on the webbing of his thumb and index finger, how the lines curved to make a terribly shaped 'L' on his palm. Soon only the firelight was what let them see the contours of each others faces. The night had almost disappeared, a howl could be heard in the background, but James was caught up in those eyes, those brilliant green eyes. He smiled and put a hand to her cheek. She sighed some and settled into his lap, exhaustion taking over her common sense this time. She sighed as he wrapped his arms around her waist, her head tucked into his neck her legs in between his, her eyes fluttered shut as he sighed some stroking her side and kissing the top of her head, 'Lily Evans is asleep in my arms.' He thought quietly to himself. He smiled and let his eyes shut. He hoped that Remus and Sirius were doing fine on their own, because he wouldn't change the way he was for the world right about now. He watched her sleep for a while before letting sleep take him into the dream world, where only Lily and him existed, floating on clouds, kissing and caressing.

'Good day. Great day.' James thought, as a silent girl took in deep breaths and let them out onto his chest, the rising and falling of her side perfectly aligned with his breathing.

Destiny.


	5. Dandelion

**Authors Note: **_Doo, doo doo, doo doo do doo. Oh hello, wonderful comments, one in particular got me. Oh, and one thing too, if you guy's are confused, which some of you have expressed then please just give it time, 'Lela' will be explained in this chapter or the next, and confusion I will try to answer as best I can, if you have any further confusion just review, ask the question, and I will answer it in my next chapter to you personally._

**Mb4:**_ What does smutty mean? –Yanks out her dictionary- curse my lack of vocabulary words. Thanks for the comment –tear- you mean a lot to my writing schedule!_

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**Chapter 5: Dandelion.**

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Lily awoke the next morning to an empty couch. She sat up quickly enough to make her head throb. She held it quickly, her hair a tangled mess. She glanced to the large grandfather clock that took up most of the left corner of the room and noticed it was just about eight thirty. Classes started at nine and she quickly took each step two at a time not giving the absence of James any thought as she rushed into the shower. None of the girls were in their bed, 'why hadn't they woken me up?' she thought. Some friends, she dressed hastily just barely muttering a charm to dry her hair resulting in it not quite drying all the way. She applied make-up while jogging down the stairs. By the time Lily reached her first class, History of Magic; advanced spells and outstanding witches and wizards through time, she was frumpled, trodden, and looking like a damn fool. It was five past nine when she burst through the door, the lesson had already begun and Professor Binns had already started his usual drone. He glanced to her nonchalantly and she proceeded to a seat in the far corner. Remus was sitting at the table she decided on as she tucked a wet lock behind her ear. She pulled some parchment and a quill out of her bag smoothing down her hair. She released a sigh and tried to pay attention to Professor Binns when it hit her like a ton of bricks; where had James been when she woke up? Didn't she fall asleep on the couch last night with him? Granted she had been a bit tipsy, but coherent none the less. She looked down to her parchment with a quizzical look when Remus looked up from his book. Did he ever put a damn book down? Lily thought a little aggressively. She turned the same frustrated look on him and he shrugged looking a little sicklier than usual, partial scratches on his face. Her face hit the desk before she knew it and she tried to stifle a scream she was desperate to get out.

Her first class was over before she knew it and on her way to Divination she ran into Lela, she had plum forgot she had her next class with her. She sighed some as Lela looked her over saying,

"What happened to you?" Lily's face probably didn't show any signs of happiness. Lela glanced at the clock before pulling her into the nearest privy. She motioned for her to sit on top on one of sinks. Lily sighed, not in the mood for games today, but she sat on the sink anyway and looked at her. Lela pulled out chopsticks and hair utensils as she went to work on her mess of hair. The chopsticks tied her hair up in a nice little bun as she let some pieces of hair fall around her face and she smoothed the make-up around her face so she looked sophisticated. She told Lily to open her mouth and sprayed a little freshener and smiled at her softly.

"All finished, let's have a look-see, shall we?" Lily hopped off the sink and turned around and smiled to herself. "Lela Grace, hair and make up, you can call me LG." she laughed and took her hand as they walked out of the girl's privy. Lily glanced at the clock only to see it was ten minutes passed.

"Second class I'm late for today," Lily muttered. Just then though, Lucius and some of his chronies were passing by as he said making it quite clear for Lily to hear,

"Look at that boys, there's nothing worse than a mudblood trying to mingle with sophisticated blood," he let out a cackle and continued on, but Lela stopped him short shoving him in the back. He turned abruptly and glared at her.

"Lela, let's just go, he's not worth your time," Lily tried to persuade her, but Lela wouldn't have it. Lela stared him down and suddenly Lucius chuckled.

"You haven't a wand on you, don't you think it wise to only confront someone when you have something at your defense?" he said slyly. Suddenly he was thrown against the wall hanging by a simple thread in his shirt. Lela smirked saying,

"Don't need one," she turned her back, but once she did Lucius took the first chance he could at getting her on the ground. When he shot a jinx at her it simply just bounced off her. "Have you not figured it out yet? I'm not a witch!" Lucius' eyes got wide as he said,

"My father said someone like you would be here, I just didn't know it was true," his eyes went back to their normal snake-like state before he moved on down the corridor. Lily tugged at her sleeve as they headed the rest of the way to Divination which they were now twenty minutes late for.

"What was all that about?" Lily said aghast. Lela rounded, that fire still in her eyes,

"Lily, there are things worth explaining, and then there are things that are just better left unsaid," she sighed looking to the gargoyles and high arched ceilings.

"Yeah, well this is better left to be explained," Lily put her hands on her hips and waited for her to answer.

"Alright. I'm an enchantress," she said a little breathy as if this was something not needed to be said. Lily urged her to go on, "I am the last of my kind. The Grace family race is slowly dieing out because the enchantress' are all dead, my mother included. Only the female generation of enchantress' can be passed down now because the fathers are not enchanters themselves, therefore I am the last enchantress in the world that I know of. The only reason why I'm here is because I'm a risk to the muggle society because the Dark Lord is out there and he wants me to join his ranks. I'm here to be protected, and to protect everything here at the same time. Got it?" Lela said. Lily gave her a skeptical look but believed her all the same.

"Well, then that settles it," Lily said softly, Lela looked at her in disbelief as if what she said might be some sort of national emergency, "We'll just have to keep tabs on you then won't we?" a smile played at Lily's lips, trying to downplay the situation. Lela smiled draping an arm over her shoulder,

"Yeah? You and what army?" Lela asked quietly as they walked the rest of the way up the stairs to the Divination Tower. They decided to just wait outside, seeing as they would get a lashing for being so late. So Lela and Lily just talked, becoming better friends by the minute. Lily explained about last night and how she woke up the next morning to find James gone. Lela shrugged quietly and just replied by saying,

"Maybe he's afraid that since you finally reacted to him that things might be too good to be true," she smiled as Lily said she disagreed. That prat would jump at the first chance he got to get down her pants, now all she had to do was figure out was why he didn't take the opportunity when she was feeble minded and vulnerable. Maybe the prick really did have a spine, or something of that sort.

When classes were finally dismissed for lunch at noon Lela and Lily were glad to be sitting at the table stuffing their faces. Lily noticed that she smiled a lot more now, now that she had a friend who didn't just use her for who knows what. Of course, Meddie never used her, but she was never interested in just talking, unless of course it was about one of the Marauders. Lela on the other hand loved to talk about just anything. She'd go on to talk about music, books, life in general, how she was sent on certain 'missions' and would also listen to Lily's far from fabulous life. She was okay with that sort of thing, and probably envied Lily more than she thought for a normal life; you know the kind, annoying sisters, parents who were a little to overprotective, that sort of thing. Lily noticed James was no where to be seen around the lunch area and neither were his fellow Marauders. Lela told her not to worry, that they were all probably caught up in some prank. But why should Lily care where he was anyways? She probably should stop denying these things now; she knew she had something for that Potter. She just wasn't ready to admit it just yet.

The next couple of days passed without any fascinating news, except that Lily hadn't seen James at all. When she ran into Sirius, Remus, or even Peter, they wouldn't speak to her, rushing away saying they had things to do. Lily was growing quite tired of games. The long absence of James soon had her worried to wits end, and about what you might ask? Absolutely nothing. James Potter was hiding out, yes hiding out. From whom you ask? The girl of his dreams. He couldn't quite wrap his pretty little head around the fact that Lily was actually reacting so great to him, he loved the spice she portrayed of playing hard to get. That mean girl attitude had him chasing after her everywhere she went. Even as he was hiding out from her, he always had sudden urges to bolt out of his hiding place and run to her. This was only natural for a boy of sixteen in love with none other than his fate. Yet, such feeble brains can't comprehend so much at one time, so he waited it out. When the waiting became unbearable, he waited some more. Until-

James was out of his chair and running down the corridor; what had he been thinking? He loved the damn girl; stupid tricks shouldn't get in the way of how he cared. So what if she didn't play hard to get? Easier for him to get closer to her. He had finally grasped it. Yes folks, James realized just how deep in love he was. He was so deep he couldn't even see past his hand half the time. The fantasy was all too real. He ran down every corridor he could find, searching for a bobbing red head. When he heard her laughter out in the court yard he followed the sound. He ran up behind her, pulled her around by the arm and kissed her as deep as he could. His hands squeezed her waist, pulling her into him so he could feel every bit of her skin as she would allow. He felt her melt against him and then-

Her hand jumped to his face making a loud smack across his cheek. They had attracted several stares, and the blushing soon crept over Lily's face when she noticed the audience his escapade had drawn. One hand was still holding her waist, the other on his cheek as he looked at her softly. Lela was wide eyed and staring at their little scene, her gaze jumping from Lily to James. They seemed to be frozen in time as the court yard was quiet.

"Get your hands off of me Potter," she spat at him. He held fast though, not letting her go until she grabbed his hand, letting her nails dig in a little too deep as she threw his hand off of her.

"Lily!" he yelled after her, but all he got was a loud,

"Drop dead Potter!" from Lily's back. Lela burst out in laughter at James and patted him on the shoulder.

"She's just relieved, showing you that she cares," she soon followed after her friend laughing all the way.

A small smile crossed James mouth as he said to himself, "She's back," he stuffed his hands in his pockets and walked out of the courtyard head down, smile on his lips.

As Lily stomped down towards the dark lake fury in her eyes, a smile twitched at her lips as she sighed with relief, "He's back," she sighed happily to the sky.

Mature ones aren't they?


	6. Flowering season delayed

**Authors Note: ** _Yeah, I'm not around to doing that summer reading yet. I don't know what kind of lingo you guy's are using when you say 'T' guideline, or smutty. I'm new, and I'm an idiot. Spell it out for me please!_

**Disclaimer:** _I don't own the HP series and stuff. Junk. Cool._

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**Chapter 6; **Flowering season-delayed

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Lily awoke to a dreary and sad morning. The sky threatened an early snowfall, odd to this time of year. She sighed rubbing her head as she fumbled down the stairs. It was the weekend; no classes, no worries, no problems. The first Hogsmeade visit was to be the following morning, but as Lily rounded the perimeter of the staircases, there was a large red splatter of paint over the Hogsmeade signing exclaiming 'DELAYED'. Her eyes were wide as she looked at it curiously. She checked the grandfather clock only to read that the time was ticking by too slow for such an early morning. She sighed collapsing on the armchair facing the still burning flames of the fire. A hand went to her tangled hair as she looked around the desolate room. It was too early for breakfast therefore she wouldn't even bother running down to the Great Hall. She considered walking into the kitchens to ask for some food, but she thought it might be rude, and honestly didn't have the motivation to move at the moment. She propped her feet up on the coffee table in front of her that held an abandoned game of Wizard's Chess.

'Hogsmeade visit delayed,' Lily thought looking into the flames, 'What a relief.' But there was that sadness there, a bit of disappointment. Even as Lily claimed on a daily basis that James Potter irritated her beyond belief, she knew she had a soft spot for him, and just once, she would have loved to experience walking through Hogsmeade with him, hand in hand. She shook the thought from her head, angry for even thinking that. Oh for heaven's sakes, how long was she going to play this game with herself? The firelight soon made Lily's eyes dreary, her thoughts blurry, and before she knew it the only firelight she could see was in her dreams, where she sat on a soft blanket next to a boy with tousled hair and spectacular eyes staring at fireflies.

Lela had walked down the stairs later that morning to find Lily in her smashing pajamas curled up in the armchair. She sighed and sat down quietly pulling out the book covered in cobwebs still. She really needed to get around to dusting that thing off. Lela had become so enthralled in her book that she didn't notice the incessant chatter growing around her. People began to fumble down the stairs and head out to the grounds in coats and scarves, eager to feel the refreshing air on their faces. Lela didn't look up from her book until he heard tired groans floating down the boy's dorm stairway. James was rubbing his eyes, still in his pajamas, Sirius shortly after. He rubbed his eyes and shook his head as if to shake off a bad dream. Remus was sleepily eyeing the book Lela held and shrugged collapsing on the couch.

"Where's the other one?" Lela said without much enthusiasm. But all she got for a response were tired moans and wide yawns. Lily's foot suddenly slipped off the chair, causing her to roll over on the armchair, settling herself more comfortably within its pillowey depths. Sirius looked over first, nudging James in the ribs who immediately directed his gaze to Lily. She was even more beautiful when sleeping, the soft, approachable look on her face made James' heart melt just a bit more. He smiled sweetly as best he could with his famous Potter grin and looked to Lela whispering,

"How long has she been there?" Lela looked up from her book, then to Lily only to say a little loudly,

"I don't know, as long as I've been down here, a bit more. This is how I found her," she soon ducked behind her book muttering as if in concentration, "Try to fight the urge to write all over her face with permanent marker would you Black?" Sirius glanced over quickly, recapping his everlasting ink pen and sighed saying,

"But it was the perfect moment," Lela shook her head as James whispered still,

"Should we wake her?" When had James become so considerate, Lela thought to herself. She shrugged gently and sighed saying,

"Why bother? What? You want to be like Prince Charming in Sleeping Beauty? Kiss her to break the spell, eh?" she laughed softly and shook her head hiding behind her book yet again. Sirius eyed her carefully, loving the way she thought. The couch suddenly grew lighter with the absence of James who was slowly approaching the Sleeping Beauty. He liked the way Lela thought too. He smiled down at Lily not even thinking to reconsider his move as he leaned forward and planted a kiss on her soft, pink lips.

Lily sucked in a deep breath at this, because at that moment in her fabulous dream, James had been kissing her lips making her cheeks turned red. He had covered them with his hands though and let the starlight take them. It felt so real, she even thought to herself, but then again this was a dream, wasn't it? Lily's eyes jumped open when she realized that James himself was kissing on her mouth smoothing her hair away from her face, and leaning down onto her. She placed her hands on his shoulders and pushed him abruptly,

"Potter!" she gasped, her breath regaining itself.

"Yes Sleeping Beauty?" he smirked that precarious Potter grin as Lily gritted her teeth, put her feet on his stomach and pushed him off roughly, sending him flying over the coffee table, leaving chess pieces strewn about. Sirius was laughing his handsome little head off and gasping for air as James looked up from his place on the floor. Lela looked at him and chuckled lightly saying,

"I didn't actually mean do it," she shook her head and looked to Lily saying gently, "Well good morning there 'Sleeping Beauty' was it?" she looked to James to confirm his words and looked back to Lily saying, "My you look like you've slept well." She hid a grin from behind her book but her eyes gave her away. Lily wiped her lips and shot a glare at James who was smiling happily and dusting himself off. A soft smile etched across Lily's lips as she stifled the laughter that was building, then let it burst out of her like a cannon. Taken aback by this, James turned to his friend, but he was laughing as well. Lela had shut her book and was smacking her knee with such glee that her eyes watered with happiness. When his gaze returned to Lily she was laughing and pointing.

"What?" he all but yelled. Lily stood giggling still and came up to him, reaching up to his head and pulling out a very angry King's piece from James tousled hair, he didn't think it was very funny either. He had persisted in spitting in James hair, pulling out a few clumps of it and knocking him with his tiny trident. Lily set the King down on his rightful place and brought her hands to his hair trying to smooth out the spot where the King had taken away some of his hair. She was still giving out short giggles as James just watched her face. She continued in ruffling it, trying to make it look as close to his image as possible, but she wasn't very successful. A smile grew on his lips as he looked down at her with eyes full of…you get the idea. She wiped her hands on her pajama pants and turned around to take a seat back down on her armchair. She looked to Lela, who had momentarily regained her composure. Remus sat in a stifled gaze of sleepiness. He was like a zombie. James plopped down on the couch and glanced over only to see that bright red paint glaring at him.

"Delayed!" he said in disbelief. Lily turned to look at the Hogsmeade sign again and turned back to James seeing his disappointed face. She clasped her hands and forced a smile saying wickedly,

"Guess we won't be having that date then will we Potter?" she smirked and stood saying, "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to get ready and go down to the Great Hall to get something to eat," Lela watched her walk up the stairs in utter shock and turned back with a look of outrage on her face.

"Oh no, she is not getting out of this," she shook her head and set her book on the coffee table. James looked at her and said gloomily,

"She obviously doesn't want to go. I wouldn't want to force her anyways. It would just make the experience that much worse," he rubbed his forehead and let his gaze fall to the floor before he obtained a swift kick in the shin. He grabbed it in a reflex and looked up to Lela who had her hands on her hips and very stern look on her face.

"Is the infamous Potter giving up so quickly on his three year obsession? Where is your commitment?" she said in disgust, "Oh no, we'll get this fixed, there will be a date, Hogsmeade or not!" She held a finger in the air and posed. James let a skeptical look fall to his face as he said a little confusingly,

"And why are you so interested and determined to get this date going?" Lela put her hands on her hips and said,

"Well, if you'd rather not have a date I guess we can –," but James suddenly stopped her, shaking his arms and saying,

"No, it's not that at all! I just want it to be for real, you know, she's willing and everything," James looked to the floor and suddenly his Potter confidence came swelling back into his head, "Of course she'd want to. What girl wouldn't want a date with me?" he smiled a little unconvincingly, and all three of the party in unison said,

"Uh, Lily."

James stood and shook his head. He was determined to make this date work. He would get it right with her this time, and this time she'd fall head over heels for him. Yeah, that's how it would go! Perfect! Just like Lily! Without a word he dashed up to his dorm and decided to make plans right away, leaving the three in a state of confusion and daze,

"I swear, that boy gets dumber by the day," Lela sighed and put a hand to her forehead saying slowly, "We've got a lot of work to do." Sirius and Remus both nodded in agreement, not really knowing what they were agreeing too. They were still stuck in a daze of James' sudden leave.

"A lot of work," Lela repeated softly to herself as she looked out the window. It was hard playing matchmaker; especially when you didn't really get anything out of it in return for yourself. But she had to remember, she was helping people, protecting people, making things right. And this, with Lily and James, was definitely right. She was sure of it.


	7. Blooms in fall

**Authors Note:**_ Comments were great! Thanks to jmarit17 I now know what smutty means. What a terrible word for that. It makes it sound so-bleh. But it sure is catchy! To answer that question, yes this shall be quite smutty, but remember we're only in the 6th chapter; Lily's just not that kind of girl. Don't think she's going to be the only one getting any. wink_

**Disclaimer:**_ Shove it._

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**Chapter 7; **_Blooms in fall_

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The morning of Lily's cancelled date, she awoke grateful that she wouldn't have to go anywhere with that Potter. She sighed and got dressed in sloppy lounge clothes. Yet another week had passed and the classes were definitely becoming stressful. She pulled out her essay for Potions that she was only halfway through and sighed getting to work on it.

Strange noises were coming from outside, but Lily just decided to ignore them. She thought it strange that Lela hadn't come to check on her yet. She usually brought her food when she locked herself in the dorm to finish some homework. Her stomach gave a grumble and right as she hopped off the bed to make her way down to the Great Hall for lunch, a disheveled looking Lela burst through the door and set the goods on her bed.

"Sorry I'm late," she sat down on the bed for a breather while Lily looked at her with a strange eye. Her face was covered in grease and soot as sweat rolled down her temple. She was decked out in painter's wear and had a bandana over her black hair. Suddenly there was a cry from outside.

"Lela! Get up here!" Lily could have sworn it was the voice of that handsome trouble maker Sirius. Lily eyed Lela suspiciously, but before she had any time to say Lela dashed out of the room calling as she went,

"Take a shower please! I'll be back," Lily watched her go and slowly ate the sandwiches she had brought her for lunch. She smiled and went back to work shaking her head. She ruffled her hair and flipped through her potions book.

It was rounding six o'clock and dusk was setting in. Lily yawned rubbing her eyes; another successful day of getting all her work done. She sighed quietly and leaned back against the pillows, arms behind her head. Lela burst through the door and looked at her shocked.

"Did I not say take a shower when I was last here?" Lily looked up at her and said wearily,

"Well, yeah, but I thought you were just joking because you thought I smelled bad or something," Lily started packing up most of her books when Lela ran over to the shower in the girls bathroom and switched it on.

"Get in, you don't have much time now, it's already six o'clock," Lily reluctantly got up and was given a swift push in the back by Lela as she reached the bathroom door. She quickly took a shower and was ushered into the room by Lela with a towel wrapped tightly around her torso. Lela had clothes strewn about and Lily looked at her strangely,

"What's all this for?" she said sitting on the bed. Lela turned suddenly not noticing she was there and said hurriedly,

"For your date tonight of course," Lela smiled wickedly and kept holding up different sweaters to her. She decided on a green one to accent her eyes and smiled, throwing a dark pair of jeans at her with some high boots. Lily got dressed quickly, tucking her jeans into her boots making the calves' scruffle. Lela stood her in front of the mirror and looked at her damp hair. She then cast an easy spell and watched as each lock of her hair fell in massive red ringlets. A light amount of make-up and she was ready to be a princess at a ball. Lela smiled at her creation and turned her around gently to say,

"You ready to amaze the world?" she smirked and said, "Alright, so maybe not the world." She laughed and took her hand and tugged her down the girls' stairs in her dorm and out the portrait hole. They passed the large clock that looked over the courtyard and followed a winding narrow staircase up to the top of the castle where the black tower stood. When Lily came up out of the narrow staircase behind Lela, she gasped. The top of the castle had been transformed. There were tiny fairies in little lamp lights that were lounging comfortably on wires. It lit up the entire castle top to illuminate a white covered table with rose's inbedded in the sheet. There were candles lit on the table top with elegant food steaming from the plates. James stood at the table and turned to face her. His hair was still messy, but his face was clean and his clothes were out of the ordinary for him, but he looked nice none the less. He wore a grey sweater with khaki pants tapering down to shiny brown shoes. He had his hands behind his back just like a prince and the sight made Lily giggle a bit. James laughed as well and Lily noticed that the typically cold air that would be surrounded by them was replaced with a warm comfortable atmosphere. Lily looked to where Lela once stood but she had stolen away.

Lela was sitting in the Black tower sitting against a wall with Sirius, sharing a sandwich. They sighed in relief and exaughstion as they heard Lily's soft and tentative footsteps. The looked through the small archway together pointing out stars, grease and soot streaking their skin, both of their black hair tangled and sweat induced. They laughed and joked together as the light faded from their view.

Lily had carefully walked over to James as he put a hand behind his head saying softly,

"Surprise?" he chuckled lightly as she looked down at her feet and then to his face, "Well, I suppose when Lela says I'll get a date, she means it." He sighed softly and grasped onto her hand. To his surprise, she let him take it and lead her to the table. She sat down and they conversed softly, Lily laughing at moments even, especially when James spilled his drink on the white table cloth. As the dinner drew to a close, with laughter and spilt milk, James stood and held out his hand to Lily. He bowed elegantly and said gently,

"May I have this dance, m'lady?" Lily blushed and took his hand whispering,

"How can we dance with no music?" James just smiled that Potter grin and held her close humming in her ear softly as he moved back and forth. She had to admit, the boy was good on his feet. She smiled and rested against him rocking back and forth. She was drifting into a mystical abyss under a starry sky where the only sounds that existed were the soft humming of fairy lights and James' off key humming. Suddenly though, Lily's happy humming dance was shattered by an ear piercing scream. Lily's eyes shot open and she was almost lurched from James' arms. The scream was followed by a loud and shocked voice saying,

"What! What! What! What is it!" it was Sirius and they heard scraping and scrambling. Lily just sat listening as she heard from Lela,

"Spider! Get it, get it, get it!" this was followed by a loud smack and a sigh of relief. Lela breathed slowly and Lily broke out in laughter. They walked over to the Black Tower and looked in to see Lela collapsed over Sirius' lap. Sirius was busy wiping his hand on his dress pants and sighed looking up at James saying nonchalantly,

"How's the date going?" he smiled and gave him a thumbs up as James said,

"Great and yours?" James winked to Sirius who was muddled with incoherent words as he scrabbled up pulling Lela to her feet. He bent down as Lela hopped on his back; Sirius' hands under her calves; Lela's arms looped around his neck. She yawned like a child and laid her head on his shoulder. Lily smiled as they let Sirius pass.

"I think we're finished with our date, anyways so we'll walk down with you guys," Lily said as James nodded flicking his wand as the scene disappeared. James offered his hand and Lily let her fingers intertwine with his. As they walked down the narrow stairway and down the corridors quietly Lily said softly,

"So, how hard was it to convince McGonagell to let you put that display on the top of the tower?" a soft murmur came from Sirius' shoulder that said,

"Four detentions and no Quidditch for a week and a half," she yawned and Sirius nodded hiking Lela up his back a little so she didn't slide down to far.

"You got detentions for us?" James asked aghast. It wasn't like Sirius didn't take the blame a lot of the time for James, but the fact that it was for him and a girl, it was astonishing. Sirius just nodded quietly looking ahead softly, obviously not wanting to wake Lela who was soundly sleeping on his back. They walked in silence the rest of the way up to Gryffindor Tower without any interruptions by Filch, oddly enough. James grip tightened around her hand ever so slightly and smiled down at her once in awhile. When they reached the common room Sirius quietly walked over to the girls staircase and gently jumped up and down whispering,

"Oy, Lela, we're here. Come on sweetheart time to go upstairs," Lela's eyes opened regretingly and she hugged Sirius gently before pecking his cheek and slumping up the stairs on all fours. Lily smiled as James taunted,

"Sweetheart? Is that what you call her now-a-days?" James grinned wickedly and Sirius just waved his hand walking groggily up the boys' staircase muttering a soft,

"Shut up." James just grinned and turned to look at Lily who had her hands shoved in the back pockets of her jeans. She looked up to him and smiled some and said,

"Well, good night," she turned to leave and started up the stairs. James looked after her and when she was at the top of the stairs he put one foot on the bottom step and suddenly the stairs seemed to liquidate and become a slide as Lily slipped and slid back down. James caught her at the bottom and picked her up bringing her face to his saying gently between kisses,

"Now you don't think I'd let you get away that easy do you?" Lily giggled and let her lips form to his. It was no question, butterflies rose in her stomach, she got light headed and her whole world started spinning. Classic case of young love. The flames flickered out on the ends of candlesticks and in the fire leaving James and Lily in a kissing frenzy in the soft darkness of Gryffindor Tower.

Whatever could happen next?


	8. A flowers hibernation

**Author's Note:** _Yes! Another chapter, another night of interrupted sleep! Will there be smut? Oh, and to answer someone's question, no I do not ever run out of names for chapters having to do with flowers, grass and even garden utensils. Lily's name is Lily isn't it? Did anyone get the similarity to that? Well, now you know! Onward!_

**Disclaimer:**_ Woop, Hp is owned by JK and not Ct. How cool am I?_

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**Chapter 8; **_A flowers hibernation._

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Lily found herself in the darkened Gryffindor Tower with a boy she normally would hate, sharing kisses. She let her eyes flutter softly as James hands roamed down the sides of her body, to her waist, then to her hips. Her hands slid their way down his grey sweater as her tongue tangled in a soft lover's plea. She sighed some into him as James' thumbs hooked on the hem of her pants moving forward to find the button. When that was finished and he moved his kisses down her neck Lily's mind suddenly clicked back on to reality. It was like the lights were on in her head, but nobody was home. Her eyes shot open and she jumped back as James moved his hand farther south down her jeans. He stood straight a little dazed and shocked she had stopped him. Lily ran a hand through her red hair blushing profusely and said softly,

"I can't," she sighed and watched her shoes click together and she was suddenly reminded of the Wizard of Oz; a movie she watched avidly when she was a child. Strange how it connected to her life now. She kept remembering that same quote as she watched her heels move back and forth. She was ready to hear an angry voice come from James' mouth but all she got was a quiet,

"I understand," he just stood looking at her as her green eyes floated up to his. She pointed her thumb to the girls stairs and said quietly,

"I'm just going to go now," as she dashed up the stairs, happy she reached the top this time she thought 'Woah that almost went too far.' She shook her head but strangely regretted leaving him like that. Something amazing and beautiful might have just happened. She turned on her heel to go back down the stairs but then thought better of it. This mind changing game went on for about five minutes before Lily gave up and sat down on the middle of the wooden floor and put her head in her hands.

What had just happened? Would she have just gotten involved in a deep way with Potter? Would she have gone through with it and have sex in plain sight in the common room of Gryffindor Tower if her common sense hadn't clicked on at the last moment? She sighed and got up from her place on the floor and walked to the girl's bathroom. She turned on the sink pasting up her toothbrush and going to work vigorously on her teeth. She sighed at her reflection in the mirror. Would she have just become another girl to Potter at that very moment if she had given way and let him have his 'way' with her? No, he wasn't like that. Look at the way he always treated her on a daily basis now. He was so kind hearted and gentle with her. What change had there been in him? What change had been placed in Lily was the real question. She refused at that very moment to let herself get emotionally involved with him; well on a deep manner at least.

She finished brushing her teeth and tied her red hair up in a ponytail and repeated to herself in the mirror who still looked unconvinced,

"No physical relation with Potter, he's bad news. Two weeks, maybe, and he'll lose interest. It's best to keep him dangling and running after you," after saying these words to herself in the mirror, her reflection seemed to be buying it. But she sighed knowing that she wouldn't be able to not have any kind of physical contact with him. Those kisses drew her in every second she was around him. She sighed and looked to the sink as she muttered a soft spell. When she looked back up she was in shorts and a white shirt. She washed her face and still wasn't satisfied with herself. She put her hands on her hips and sternly decided that she would just have to cut off contact at all costs. That was the only way to keep her and her heart safe from everything. Lily sighed and nodded, that's just what she would do. She would put herself on Potter arrest and not let herself go anywhere near him. The thought mangled her heart and she trudged off to bed with a sinking feeling in her stomach. This was not going to be easy.

Lily walked down the halls carefully and quietly; it had been a full week and a half since Lily's close call with James. She had avoided him easily, rounding corners that she knew he wouldn't dare go down. She sighed easily as she noticed an empty hall and walked down it slowly. She had an off period to herself for all her brilliant efforts and extra service to Hogwarts School. She was on her way to the courtyard to have a bit of alone time to get some work done. She was looking down at her books when someone ran into her. She looked up hurriedly afraid of who she might see but it was just Lela. She sighed with relief and Lela looked at her strangely,

"What are you doing wandering the halls?" Lela said as if she were some sort of apprentice of Filch. But a smile broke across her face and Lily said,

"Free period and you?" she looked at her just as strangely continuing down the hall to the courtyard, Lela close behind,

"Ditching," Lela said sighing some. It was a day to day commitment to ditch classes. They entered the courtyard and Lily sat on a cobblestone bench with Lela sitting on the ground. Lily stretched her long legs out across the bench and Lela laid back to admire the blue sky overhead. The bad weather had passed and the Hogsmeade visit was rescheduled to this weekend. Lily looked through her books and her own personal planner to see that it was actually October already. She sighed and looked around; Hogwarts' annual school ball was coming up in November and the Halloween celebration was to be in a couple of weeks. She looked to Lela who had been watching her and said defensively,

"What?" Lela kept looking at her for a long time until she said, almost regrettedly,

"He's been looking for you yah know?" instantly Lily raised her hands to the air and gave a sigh of disgust,

"Lela not this again, please," Lily sighed as she watched Lela's face. She had told Lela of her plan to cut off all contact with him but Lela hadn't seemed too convinced at the time; much like Lily's reflection that night in the mirror. She had soon come to believe Lily as the weeks progressed and James kept pulling Lela aside asking where she was. All Lela could honestly say was that she didn't know, because she didn't know where Lily went to hide out from him. She was growing tired of this hide and seek game Lily was playing and she was tired of seeing James' heart slowly break as each day passed and a red head was no where to be seen.

"Not what Lily? You're killing the poor kid," she seemed exasperated and was desperate to make her see. Lily crossed her arms and looked towards the fountain, "He's been looking for you everywhere, he's even gone as far as trying to figure out how to make the stairs stop turning into mush every time he steps on them. It's hopeless but at least the boys trying! Honestly Lily, how can you do that to the poor boy?" Lela seemed deeply hurt by this, not just because James had become her friend and she felt bad for him, but because it made Sirius just as down and gloomy as James. This wasn't any fun for both parties, now all Lela had to do was show her that.

Lily looked up at Lela and sighed looking to the side, "I can't," she seemed to echo her words from that night with James.

"You can't what, Lils?" Lela was desperate, all but pleading with her.

"I can't see him," she said gently, "It would just be completely awkward and embarrassing." She lamely said.

"Oh my God Lily, get over yourself, that boy is embarrassed beyond belief. He thinks he made you do something you didn't want to do, he feels like he forced you," she said. Lily looked up shocked and said,

"No he didn't! It was all me I swear, why would he think something like that?" Lela grabbed her hand and said softly.

"Because, the boy's in love with you and will take the blame for anything and everything with you for the rest of his life unless you tell him otherwise," she didn't want James sound so submissive but whatever it would take to get Lily to talk to him again she would lay it on thick. Lily shook her head and stood up, grabbing her books and walking away. Lela let out a disgruntled noise as she stood, the bell for the end of class rang and she walked over to a clump of trees strewn out on the grounds. Little pink flowers fluttered in the air around it and a small opening suggested a romantic hideaway. But as Lela entered, that suggestion was squashed. All the Marauders were there, their books strewn about. James was leaning against a tree off in a dazed world, but as Lela walked through he shot up and said excitedly,

"What did she say?" Lela plopped down in between Sirius' knees leaning back against his chest. He looped an arm around the front of her still in rapture over an article in the Daily Prophet. Lela shook her head and said softly,

"No such luck, and my performance was flawless," she sighed softly and closed her eyes gently. Sirius had put his paper down and looked James softly saying slowly,

"Well, this calls for drastic measures," James eyes quavered some and he nodded. He didn't know if he'd ever get Lily to speak to him again. His fears were slowly creeping up on him.

"Indeed," Lela said staring off into the greenery of the Forbidden Forest. She looked to Remus and said, "What's the plan?" Remus smiled mischeviously over a piece of parchment he was scribbling on and he laid it down for all of them to see. They huddled around the piece of paper and looked to Remus who said,

"I've got the perfect idea," his eyes glinted with a bit of malice, but it was quickly replaced by teasing fun. Peter fidgeted with his fingers and looked at the paper. Even James couldn't resist a smile as he looked at the parchment. Yes, this plan was sure to work.

"Sirius," Remus put out his hand as Sirius dug in his pockets to give him the finished Marauders map; their prized possession since the middle of September when they had tested it out on Filch.

"When will the operation commence?" Lela said secretively, "I feel like I'm in a James Bond movie." She laughed and looked at Remus who replied shortly,

"This weekend, Hogsmeade visit," he looked down at the parchment and quietly started planning.

Lela smiled, this just might do it. She'll have no where to go. She smiled and looked to James who was enthralled with the plan. He looked like he'd do absolutely anything just to get her to talk to him again. She looked to her other side where Sirius was glancing around the page. He glanced over at her and smiled softly before adding some suggestions to Remus' ingenius plan. Lela nodded her head convinced this plan would work.

'Sorry Lils, but I can't help you out on this one. You refused my first idea, now we're using a more brutal approach.' She grinned softly and worked the plan over in her mind.

'Oh what a weekend this will be.'


	9. Uprooting the Weeds

**Authors Note: **_Oh my what a night this has been. I've been trying to think of what to do for 'the plan' which will be given a proper name in the story, but I think I got it. Hope you all like this one, this is going to be one fun ride. Tell me if you're disappointed. Oh and to answer someone's question: Yeah I usually write my stories at like one o'clock in the morning so by the time I'm finished I'm so tired and so excited that I just submit it without reading it until after its been in there. So sorry, I will try to make sure I make the sentences flow better. I noticed it too, my apologies. But on with the story! Hooray!_

_Lela is pronounced, Lay-Luh. Like Ella only the letters are mixed around. Lela._

**Disclaimer: **_I'm a bad ass. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it Hp copyright! Xo, don't sue. _

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**Chapter 9; Uprooting the Weeds**

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The morning of the Hogsmeade visit, Lily was finishing her outfit. She put on her green knitted hat and scarf around a black fitted sweater, finishing it off with some dark jeans. She wore the same khaki like snow boots she wore on the date with James and looked herself over in the mirror. Her hair looked amazing today, she had to admit. It flowed around her shoulders in waves and her green eyes were vibrant against the black sweater.

"Lela!" she called to the shut bathroom door. The damn thing had been shut for nearly two hours, "Are you ready yet?" Lily sighed and rested on her hip with one hand on her thigh. Lela emerged fluffing her black hair that always seemed to be flawless under a white hat. A white scarf lay below her face and accented her heart shaped features. She too wore a sweater but it was a light cream color making her tan skin looking stunning. She wore light jeans with white snow boots much like Lily's.

When she looked up at Lily her bright grey eyes shone and she said for the first time in an insecure manner,

"Do-do I look alright?" she shoved her hands in her back pockets and Lily just smiled at her saying softly,

"You look absolutely beautiful Lela Grace," and she meant it. Lela was a stunning image and a gorgeous sight, "Are you meeting Sirius in the common room?" Lela shook her head, regaining her composure at his name and said softly,

"No, I'm meeting him there so I can walk there with you," she smiled hoping to put on her best act yet. She had a lot of experience with lieing to people, but never had she had to lie to her best friend. She sighed and looped her arm in Lily's and said, "Let the adventure begin." Lela smiled suspiciously but Lily didn't see it. She was too busy checking her hair. When she nodded, Lela took that as her cue to lead her down the steps. Lily was a little unwilling to go to Hogsmeade at first because Lela was to meet up with Sirius, and where ever Sirius went, James wasn't far behind. But Lela had convinced her that she and Sirius had talked and that James would be no where around for Lily's comfort. In the back of her mind though, she didn't believe a word of it.

As they passed through the common room Lily looked to Lela and said gently yet curiously, "When did this whole relationship with you and Sirius emerge? One day you two were just together it seems." Lily smiled at seeing her friend squirm a little. Lela never revealed much to anyone but Lily knew she couldn't escape this one.

"For one thing dear, Sirius and I are not 'together' and we just developed a friendship through you're whole date thing. When I asked him to help, he didn't object and we got to talking. The end," Lela breathed in a heavy sigh and kept her eyes to the floor as they passed through the portrait hole and walked along the damp corridors. The outside world showed serious signs of dampened cold and Lela was glad she wore a warm outfit.

"So did he kiss you?" Lily prodded. Lela made a disgusted sound and looked at her saying back,

"Why does it matter?" after a long look from Lily, Lela broke into a smile and laughed, "Yes, yes he kissed me, and it was amazing, I saw fireworks, I laughed I cried." Lily laughed as Lela looked at her saying, "Was that how it was with James?" Lily looked at her abruptly as they bounded down the steps toward a large group of people piling in front of Filch. Lily just shook her head and Lela left it at that, strangely enough.

When they finally got to the head of the amazing crowd and Filch checked their names off with a grunt and an eyebrow lift to Lela, they walked down the path to Hogsmeade; well more like skipping. The two were singing a song about vultures and trolls, one they made up on the spot and it was quite good too. When they finally reached the end of the path to Hogsmeade and broke into the alley of Hogsmeade Lily held her breath for a moment. Had she just seen black messy hair? Her heart stopped and she looked to Lela who's face was emotionless and not showing any signs of seeing Potter.

They stopped into Madame Rosemerta's to get a warm cup of coffee. Lela sipped gently, her arm still looped with Lily's as they made their way farther. Lela kept glancing to her side and up the alley noticing Sirius and points, pointing a finger as to where to lead her next. She conversed with Lily about the upcoming Halloween celebration; it was after all a costume party. Lily didn't give much input on the situation saying she wasn't going to go if she didn't find a date. Lela concluded in saying,

"I'll be your date!" Lily laughed and stopped in the alley way and looked at the bookstore in front of her. Lela looked at her and smiled mischeviously. Her heart began to race as she said nonchalantly, "Want to go inside?" Lily nodded vigorously and soon they were inside browsing books. Lela noticed Remus looking over a book and motioned to a large bookcase. Lela nodded quite aware of the plan as she tugged on Lily's sleeve. Lily glanced over her shoulder and followed Lela over to the large bookshelf. She picked up a copy after browsing a moment that read 'Young Love; Guide to getting back a lost love' and handed it to Lily laughing. Lily looked at it sighed shaking her head. When she opened the book to read the first summary page she was suddenly tugged by the belly button. She had fallen into a portal. She gasped as a sucking feeling fell around her head. She closed her eyes tightly and when the feeling lifted she opened her eyes to find her in a dark room. She was still holding the book and when she glanced up she noticed that she was in a room that was well furnished and fixed up quite nicely. She was very confused and somewhat frightened.

She proceeded in walking through the hallways and down a staircase until she came to a door that seemed to lead into the kitchen. She opened it and there James Potter was sitting on the chopping block. His messy hair hid his eyes and Lily gasped. But suddenly, the figure that she thought was James vanished. 'An apparition?' she thought. Was she seriously losing it or what? Lily walked into the kitchen, the book at her side before the door slammed shut behind her. Sirius Black happened to be behind that door and he smiled that same womanizing grin. Lily turned around and jumped. She breathed a sigh and said,

"Oh, Sirius, it's just you. Aren't you supposed to be with Lela?" she pointed towards the door but the strangely quiet Sirius shook his head. Remus suddenly appeared in the chair by a kitchen table. Lily turned and looked at Remus saying suddenly frightened,

"What is going on here? Remus? What is this?" she backed against the wall and suddenly Lela appeared on the same chopping block that James was sitting on just moments before.

"Welcome to Operation L.E" Lela said softly looking at her fingernails. Lily looked at her aghast and shook her head,

"What is this some sort of game?" Lily was beginning to feel that rising in her throat that she wanted to scream. Lela shook her head and said softly,

"Oh the contrary my dear, this is very serious," Lela said looking to Sirius who's head shot up for a moment then looked back to Lily, "You see Lily," Lela continued, "I tried to reason with you before, and you refused to see James. Yeah, big mistake." Lily was shaking her head and terror rose in her eyes. She stood up, her legs a bit shaky as she made for the door. Sirius stopped her and turned her around, "Lily, that boy loves you beyond belief, can you not see that?" Lily swallowed hard as that piercing gaze that Lela gave her cut through her like a hot knife.

"I would have talked to him on my own! You don't have to trap me here like a caged animal!" Lela shook her head and said softly,

"We're not trapping you here, I just needed to talk to you," Lela sighed heavily and said softly, "Listen Lils, you'll be out of here in a second but let me just tell you this, page 92." Lily looked at her confused and Lela motioned to the book. When she opened it again she was shot back to the bookstore looking around dazedly. She hastily turned to page 92 and skimmed the page. It was a picture of a young girl, in an exquisite gown that looked like a princess. The girl's hair was red and she was being led around the dance floor by a prince. A white lily suddenly appeared in the crack of the book and Lily sighed picking it up. The flower was beautiful and she shook her head softly. She looked around and saw a grinning Potter in the window. He stood straight with hands in his pockets and the look in his eye was almost pleading. Lily made her way to the front of the bookstore nervously and when the bell jingled softly, soft lily petals fell around her. She sighed and looked at James who was grinning softly as he held up a bag of gummy bears; a muggle food that he knew Lily loved. Lily smiled and shook her head saying with a hint of relief in her voice,

"Honestly Potter, you think you can win me over this easy?" Lily put her hands on her hips and looked at him as he shook his head smiling. Those were the first words she had said to him in two weeks. She shook her head and started to walk the other direction when James ran up behind her saying gently in her ear,

"Lily," she turned so quickly that he stepped back a little. He held out the gummy bears and Lily swiped them opening them roughly discarding of the pale yellow ones. Soon the street was lined with pale yellow gummy bears and she kept walking her face down, cold against the wind.

Lela and Sirius were walking down the path of the Shrieking Shack; Lela's arm looped through his. The wind was picking up and goosebumps began to form on the back of her neck. She bit her lip and looked up and over at Sirius, who was looking straight ahead. He seemed to be contemplating something and when he looked over to smile at her, Lela's face dropped back to the ground and she bumped his shoulder with hers. He just let out a laugh as they walked past the gate into Hogsmeades' alley. Lela and Sirius were soon up to a soft eyed couple. James and Lily were talking softly; James' hand on her hip whispering in her ear. A soft smile grew across her face as James moved his face back to look at her. Lela nudged Sirius and pointed and Sirius looked up smiling,

"Good work," he whispered in her ear. Lela smiled to herself and said softly,

"Couldn't have done it without you now could I?" Lela and Sirius approached the loving couple and Lela said in a fake tone of surprise, "Well! Look whose back together! Did you expect this Sirius?" Sirius shook his head smiling as Lily blushed about to say that they were never exactly 'together', but was hushed by a loud Lela who proclaimed, "Who needs a butterbeer?" she looked to Sirius who just smiled and shook his head saying,

"No objection to that," James looked at Sirius and said teasingly,

"Oh you wouldn't would you?" Sirius grimaced at him and turned so they headed towards Rosmerta's shop. When they entered there was a collective grimace from all the girls in the shop directed particularly towards Lela who exclaimed,

"My, my, what a beautiful bunch of girls! Where might all the boys be, though? Hm," she thought for a moment and then said, "That's right! You don't have any," she slapped her knee and suddenly her face became very serious as she walked to a booth with Sirius' thumbs hooked in her jean straps. Lily and James slid into the booth after them. As they got on with their butterbeers and animated talking Lela was looking over at one particular girl who kept getting a brighter shade of red in the face. She recognized the girl but couldn't place a name to her face. She sighed and went back to talking softly in Sirius' ear when a loud crash erupted through the room. Lela quickly looked along with the others to see that the girl she had been staring at had upturned the table she was sitting at and was glaring at Lela. Sirius looked at the girl shocked as Lily looked over to Lela saying softly,

"Lela, what's going on?" Things just got a lot worse for Lela at that moment. The girl pointed at her and all but screamed,

"You filthy, good for nothing bitch! Who the hell do you think you are? They think you're so great but do they know who you really are? Where you really came from?" Lela took a swallow of breath and stood up in her seat as Sirius looked up at her. Lily's mind was racing with thoughts, 'What was this girl talking about? Of course she knew she was an enchantress, but what else could Lela possibly be hiding?' she looked to Lela who looked for the first time, afraid.

Oh yes indeed, things had just gotten worse for Lela. Her fists clenched she looked at the girl panting heavily as she opened her mouth to exclaim some sort of defense. But what defense did she have against this? It was the truth at what the girl was yelling about.

Darker days had definitely erupted.


	10. An Infestation

**Authors note: **_I'm so glad you all love Lela! You don't know how much that means to me, because I introduced her kind of crudely and I was afraid she wouldn't take, but I'm so glad you who reviewed like her. She is an important character because she incorporates into my Harry Potter Fan fic with Harry and another surprising character. But I haven't posted that one on I have a bunch of chapters to that one but I don't think I'll post it on fanfic. It's a betrayal thing, but I'll post a different story on there after I'm done with Lily's fanfic. Tell me if you think Lela's being focused on too much, I'm afraid I was taking away the focus from Lily too much, but it's just so I can get some background on Lela for you guys._

**Disclaimer: **_I do not own Hp by any means, but I write a damn good fic! Ha jk._

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**Chapter 10;** _An infestation_

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The girl had continued on her rant as Lela just sat there breathless. Madame Rosmerta had even stopped serving butterbeers as she listened to the strange girl scream at the top of her lungs at Lela. The girl was short and plump, like a spoiled child. Now Lela knew where she had seen the girl before.

"You are nothing! I bet they don't know where Dumbledore found you! Do they? Do they," she then looked to Sirius, James and Lily and said in a mock amount of sympathy, "They found this filthy rag on a park bench! Next to London's finest hobos! Yeah, she's a great pick from the rest isn't she? She doesn't even have any money! An orphan! She has to fish out of Dumbledore's pocket to stay alive! She even used to work for You-Know-Who. She has the dark mark on her arm! I saw it when Dumbledore came to our house to talk to my parents!" she forgot to leave out why Dumbledore had gone to talk to her parents, which was that they were in the Order and they were not to harm Lela. Lela's eyes had glazed over as Sirius stood up and looked at the girl saying slowly,

"So?" Sirius was used to people bearing the dark mark, most of his family became death eaters sooner or later. The fact that Lela was living out of Dumbledore sort of pinched his heart; that explained the lack of clothes and coat. He looked back to Lela who had her mouth hanging open in an attempt to say something. The plump girl looked to Sirius and smiled. Sirius gave a disturbed look at the girl and then Lily was out of her seat on top of the table and pointing her wand at the girl. She yelled a complicated curse that sent the girl flying backwards into the wall then bursting into hives and bubbles of the skin. The girl screamed and ran around the cozy place. A shot came from Lily's side, no incantation or spell had slipped through but a powerful spell laid on the girl reducing the bubbles and hives. Lela turned to Lily aghast and saw that she had exactly the same expression. James' jaw had dropped to the floor and Sirius was looking at the two girls with laughter.

"What the hell are you doing Lily!" Lela exclaimed. Lily lowered her wand slowly and looked to the patrons in Madame Rosmerta's and said slowly and stuttering,

"I-I don't kn-kn-know," she looked to Lela in as much disbelief as Lela broke into a smile. She started to laugh to everyone's surprise and said gently,

"You're turning into the Marauders, honestly dear," Lily broke out in a smile and laughed carefully as James' face flooded with a smile. The plump girl got up off her place on the floor and said disgruntled and very angry,

"What in the hell is wrong with you whore!" she screamed at Lily. Suddenly James' head shot to attention and Lela screamed,

"Shut up!" just as James had cast a spell to send the girl tumbling back again. James normally didn't fight girls, but that, that had to be an exception. No one called Lily a whore, no one. James drew his wand back to his hip pocket and helped Lily bounce off the table and Sirius let Lela hop on his back as he dropped a galleon and some knuts on the table. As they reached the door and walked out into the cold, Sirius let Lela hop off his back and walk next to him. Her head was down but she didn't seem to look like anything unusual had happened. James kept exchanging looks with him and Lily looked at Lela worriedly. Suddenly a loud crash was heard yet again, but this time it was in the middle of the alley where a young boy with black greasy hair was on the dirt ground staring up at a couple of big guys. His books and purchases were strewn about and he looked up at the boys fearfully. Lela's eyes narrowed as Sirius snorted a laugh. She elbowed him in the ribs as he fell back onto the ground and Lela jogged forward. Lily followed after but James tugged back on her arm. She turned to look at him as if he was crazy and threw his hand off of her. She then followed after Lela.

By the time Lily reached the gang of boys, her wand was pointed at the two boys and Lela helped Severus up off the ground. Severus scowled at Lily, but Lela shoved him to pick up his books and when he finished picking everything up he waddled off still scowling. Lela pushed one of the big guys who laughed down at her. Sirius was soon at her side and stared the boy in the face who scampered off. Lily kicked the boy she was facing in the shin as he tried to grab her and James hexed him,

"What an athletic day," Lela sighed. Sirius was looking at her strangely and when she looked up at him she mumbled, "What?" That look didn't disappear from Sirius' face and when she took both of her hands and placed them on his cheeks and squeezed them together so he made fish lips she said in a more teasing tone, "What!"

"Why did you defend him? He's an annoying little prat," Lela let her hands squeeze his face then let it fall then repeat the process as she said in a baby voice,

"Us Dark Marks got to stick together," Sirius shook his head and set his hands in her back pockets. Lily walked up beside the couple and said dismissively,

"Can we please leave now? I'm amazingly cold and I want to go and sit by the fire with some food," she cooed at the sound of food and turned to find James. She looked at him a little strangely and scratched her head. He looked down at her and said softly as Sirius and Lela were still playing their 'face' games,

"Listen," Lily shook her head and shoved her hands in her back pockets saying slowly,

"I know, this whole Hogsmeade thing was a mistake. It's cool James, I can understand if-," but James cut her off with a soft kiss to the lips. She sucked in a breath and sighed when he let it pass.

"Lily, you are insane," he pronounced each word slowly to her and she grinned saying,

"Well what are you doing hanging around with me? I'll just make my way back to St. Mungo's then," she turned to leave when James grabbed her arm and spun her back into his arms to share another kiss before he whispered to her,

"Be with me," she breathed against his lips as he cradled her in his arms swaying softly as she said softly,

"Do you think that's such a good idea, I mean having to hex everyone who calls me a whore, or a slut, or a mudblood? I mean this whole thing could get very complicated and you might get sick of my annoying little anitics and how much I talk and why I talk and what I'm talking about, I mean this whole thing could go sour in like what a week? Come on Potter you think it would really-" but once again the ranting Lily was cut off by a single kiss and a soft,

"Lily, be with me. Shut up and be with me," he grinned against her lips and she giggled saying softly,

"I never have gotten a proposal like that before. With the words 'Shut up' in it and all," James gave off a soft chuckle and melted his lips to hers before he replied pleadingly,

"You're killin' me kid, what's the answer? You going to keep me guessing and keep me up sleepless nights or are you going to relieve me of my duties of chasing after you down the halls and crying myself to sleep at night?" Lily laughed some and said softly,

"You cry yourself to sleep at night Potter? Wow you might want to keep that to yourself, scars your reputation. I don't know I like the first option, it's a lot more interesting and it'll keep you guessing and it will relieve me of a title but-," James grunted and nibbled her lower lip growling,

"Lily," before she laughed and cupped a hand to his cheek and whispered,

"Yes." A soft smile grew across James' face and he enveloped her in warm kisses and soft sighs as he pulled her tightly to him. She laughed when he pulled away and gasped for air. He put his forehead to hers and said softly looking into those emerald eyes,

"Thank you," as he kissed her again.

"Anytime James, I'm here all year," she laughed and kissed him again as he softened those tantalizing kisses against her lips once again. Ah, life as a tied down woman. Let the games begin, she thought to herself. This definitely wasn't going to be easy in anyway possible. When they pulled away to face Lela and Sirius they were both staring at the two as if they were aliens,

"How long do you think they can hold their breath?" Lela said in disbelief. Sirius shook his head in disbelief and snapped his fingers,

"Wow, I swear James' pants just poked a little something extra. Did you see it?" Sirius pointed to James pants and Lela nodded seriously and laughed as James socked Sirius on the shoulder. They all rounded themselves up and headed up the alley back to Hogwarts. James' hand hooked its way around Lily's waist and held her close as if she'd slip away if he let go and Lily's hand was around his waist, walking into him a little. Sirius and Lela had their hands looped around each other and sitting the back of in each other's jean pockets as they walked their way up the pathway next to their friends. Lela set her face over to steal a kiss every now and again and Sirius obliged willingly.

It was like something on a postcard as the four walked up the hill laden with new secrets and new relationships. 'Best Hogsmeade visit ever' Lily thought as she looked up at James sideways as he returned her glance with a soft smile and a pull on her hips.


	11. Harvest season

**Authors Note:**_ I thought it was a lame chapter, but you can't be too hard on yourself. Now I can't exactly say that James and Lily's relationship will be smooth so don't worry about the whole 'hooking up in 7th year' thing. _

**Disclaimer: ** _Do I look like Jk? Honestly? How can you mistake my pitiful story against her phenomenon? Nice try._

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Chapter 11; Harvest season

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When the two couples had reached the common room that evening the weather outside turned bracingly cold and the two girls retreated to a warm shower and their softest and warmest of pajamas. They donned hoodies they had that embellished the Gryffindor House symbol and jogged downstairs, both of their hair wet and tied up on top of their head. When they reached the common room downstairs the fire was blazing, but the boys were no where in sight. They shrugged and sat down when an ecstatic house elf appeared. Lela automatically hugged the soft house elf and patted her head as she asked for a couple cups of hot chocolate. The house elf graciously vanished and returned with four steaming cups and scurried away to help with dinner duties. Lela settled against the front of the large armchair sitting on the floor and facing the warm fire as she sipped her cup slowly. Lily stole glances at her friend and wondered exactly what had evolved between Sirius and her. Lela had become her best friend, a laugh every day, someone to chat and make faces at in the worst of classes. She smiled softly and looked into the fire and thought about James for a moment. She was now with the damn fool, and she must admit she was not exactly hating it. The boy had pulled on her heartstrings and played a fine tune into her ear that she just could not resist. She sat on the soft sofa that she had fallen asleep on with James himself that fateful night. You don't toy with fate, and Lily knew that very well. He had his faults, but what ruggedly handsome boy didn't? He was a trouble maker for sure but Lily was drawn to adventure she decided. That stunt she pulled in Madame Rosmerta's had her reeling. She couldn't believe she attacked someone; for the first time she might add. The silence was deafening and for a moment Lily thought her friend had fallen asleep, but she was just savoring the steam rising from the chocolate cup. She sighed and heard a rumble in the direction of the boys' stairs. They were talking animatedly to each other as if something had sparked their interest in the short time they were upstairs.

When the boys finally emerged from the dark stair way they also were in their pajamas and warm clothing. Lela hadn't moved from her spot but kept staring willingly into the fire as if nothing had disturbed her peace. Sirius jumped on the armchair behind her and let his legs fall to either side of Lela as he nodded secretively to James. James settled on the couch next to Lily, laying his head on her lap and letting his long legs hang over the side of the couch.

Lela passed Sirius a cup without a word and he took it silently as James looked warily to Sirius before he spoke up abruptly,

"So, are you two together or just snogging each other for fun?" Lily laughed at this and James smiled up at her enjoying her laughter for a moment before turning to see Sirius gulp down a large mouthful of hot cocoa. Lela tilted her head back to look up at him with cautious eyes and said softly,

"Yeah?" as Sirius wiped his mouth with his sleeve and mumbled something not quite audible as Lela took the stage for him and said as she sighed into the fire, "No, we're not dating. Can't keep this one on a leash, he's a stray," she explained. Sirius shook his head disapprovingly and smiled having escaped narrowly out of an awkward conversation. He made no further comment to the issue as the night lengthened.

The next week flew by as did the next and October approached willingly. Lela sighed to the autumn air and fluttered through the breeze as Lily turned to her to stare strangely at her best friend.

"What's gotten into you?" Lily said softly. Lela sighed and collapsed into a pile of raked leaves saying softly,

"October is the most wonderful month where a witch or wizard can come out of hiding and not be ashamed because Hallow's Eve is the perfect time to demonstrate powerful things. Plus it's my birthday," Lela smiled softly and stood up putting her hands on her hips, her white zip-up hoodie accenting her black hair, making it stand out more than usual as it flowed down her shoulders. Lily had to admit, Lela looked a lot happier. Her cheeks were pink and her olive skin was bright and looked soft. Lily shook her head and guided her friend down to the lake where they had decided to have lunch on their off period.

Well technically it was Lily's off period, and Lela's ditching habit. They settled by the chilly lake's edge and pulled out a couple of large brown sacks that James had nicked for Lela and Lily. They pulled out roast beef and chicken legs, mashed potatoes with cheese, chocolate layer cake, and a few butterbeers. They laughed as they talked of classes and watched as the lake monster swam in and out of the lake lazily, brimming the edge precariously before sinking back down to the murky depths.

October's chill was upon them and as they finished their lunches and packed up the left-overs, none of which the chocolate cake was left, and strolled back up to the castle, Lela ruffling her hair some to get odd leaves out of her black locks.

The corridors were damp and quiet since classes hadn't let out just yet and as Lela and Lily rounded the corner talking quite loudly and laughing Lela stopped to look ahead in the hall. There was Sirius, his face attached to a brunette who was laughing and pushing him against the wall. Sirius gave back that macho smirk making sure to roam every part of the girl's body with his wide hands. Lela sucked in a breath as her heart stopped for a moment. It didn't matter though right? It wasn't like they were dating, he was free to do whatever he liked, and the same went for her. It wasn't like she had any real feelings for the playboy anyway. Another deep intake of breath and Lela concluded her thoughts with, 'Then why does it hurt?'

Lily looked to her friend standing at her side and saw the pain etch her face as Sirius obliviously kept groping the girl. Lela hadn't moved and Lily was becoming worried. Should she say something? Should she interrupt Sirius and give him a good hex or two? Her heart was thumping and she jumped when the bell rang overhead dismissing the last class of the day. Lily looked around her as hundreds of students milled passed her pushing her and shoving her down the hallway. She had no choice but to go along with the crowd, but as she looked back, she saw Lela untouched as people walked passed her. A blank look was on her face as if nothing would take her anywhere. Lily fought her way back through the crowd which wasn't easy. When she looked to the nook where Sirius and the brunette had been, they had already vanished from sight. She sighed with disgust and grabbed hastily onto Lela's wrist once she was in reach of her. She felt like she was swimming against a current of a million people. She tugged Lela with her and they hurried down the hall.

Lela still said nothing as they jogged up the crowded stairways and broke out onto the grounds which was clear, save for a few students. Once they were outside and down farther in the grass Lela stopped slowly, that blank look on her face. Lily turned to look at her friend worriedly and whispered,

"Lela?" Lela took in a deep breath, her eyes still to the horizon as Lily continued, "Are you alright?" Before Lily could even think of what to do next she looked up to the great doors which were farther away than she thought and saw James and Sirius, along with Remus and Peter step out onto the grounds. She looked to Lela whose face had contorted and the next thing she knew, Lela was screaming her lungs out. She held her face up to the sky and let out a high pitched scream that rattled the castle windows.

Everyone turned to look as Lela continued on screaming with her one breath scream. Lily covered her ears as James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all dashed forward, obviously thinking something was wrong. Lela slowly began to fade as she bent forward and held her stomach. When she finally finished she looked to the ground beneath her, breathing heavily. She dropped to her knees and then heaved herself up. James and the others had made it but Lily shook her head violently and stood between them and Lela. James gave her a strange face and Lily shook her head. Lela coughed behind them and started walking towards the lake.

"Do not ask what just happened, I have no idea what's wrong," Lily breathed heavily turning to look back at the disappearing Lela who was walking down the hill towards the lake, "Don't touch her, and Sirius you need to do a better job of hiding your snogging sessions. We rounded the corner on you two and watched you for about five minutes," Lily sighed exasperated and turned to run down the hill after her friend. James rounded on him and his fists clenched as he murmured,

"You what?" Sirius' mouth was hanging open in disbelief at being found out as he stuttered to some sort of defense. James shook his head and sighed. Sirius looked down the hill and smacked his forehead muttering,

"Shit," as he turned to walk back to the castle. As James caught up with him Sirius turned up his hand saying angrily, "You don't have to lecture Jamsie, I know." James sighed as he turned to Remus, who was shaking his head and said,

"Woah, you really fucked up this time," Sirius turned and punched him on the shoulder and gave a disgruntled noise that rose in his throat. James shook his head as Peter's shrill voice piped up,

"What? Were you not supposed to kiss Renee?" he asked. James turned to punch Peter this time and socked him good in the shoulder as he shrunk away. Remus was still rubbing his shoulder as he looked ahead. Sirius face was to the ground, his black hair hanging around his face so his features couldn't be shown.

But the hurt that he knew he caused on Lela was written in his eyes. But he was still an ass for thinking he could get away with something like that. Sure they weren't dating, but he never wanted to hurt Lela anyways. She was a great friend to him. He sighed at this thought and thought, well more than a friend. He kept making upset noises from beneath his shadowy hair but James made no effort to help him. Sure he was his best friend, but he had gone too far, in one hurting someone that Lily cared about and two hurting one of his friends. But Sirius did things like this all the time? Why did it matter so much this time?

As they burst through the portrait hole James collapsed in an armchair facing the fire and Sirius sat down on the couch with a sigh. Just then Renee walked in and Sirius continued in groaning in discontent when she waved to him. Yes, the guilt sure was setting in fast.

Lela had no desire to go up to the common room but Lily had insisted that her friend get some work done to keep her mind off things. When she walked through first she was in the middle of saying to her friend,

"Something worse could have happened you know, I mean at least you weren't dating, there fore he didn't exactly split your heart in two," Lily smiled precariously trying to lighten the mood not noticing the Marauders in the dark room,

"Yeah it did, I heard it. It sounded like this," and Lela continued to make an exploding sound with a bunch of shrieks and screeches to it. Lily laughed some at the sound she made which was quite funny, but still looked at her friend sadly who was in no mood to laugh obviously. Sirius got up from his place on the couch having heard enough and headed over to her.

Lela looked up at him and as he began to make a speech he had implanted in his head Lela spit on his shoes. Lela looked up and smiled at him saying

"There, some more spit for you," before she turned to leave up the stairs. But Sirius grabbed her arm and was suddenly thrown against the wall as Lela murmured as if speaking of a death threat, "Do not touch me with dirty hands bastard," as she let him fall down the wall with a loud thump on the ground. She marched up the stairs and Sirius stomped his foot sinking back on the couch as Lily settled herself in James' lap who obliged and kissed her gently.

She was gazing into the fire as James ran his hand up and down her arm.

"It's her birthday this month Sirius. She was so happy it was October," Lily got up sadly and ran up the stairs to help her friend who, as she was opening the door, was throwing things around the room. Yes, she was a destructive one. James glared at Sirius and said in a low tone,

"You…are so dead," Sirius threw a pillow over his head and made a noise that sounded like an angry cry. He was beginning to think that this time, he wasn't going to get a second chance in coming back to life once he was slaughtered a couple of times. His luck just ran out.


	12. Wilted Flowers

**Authors Note:**

_Jmarit17- oh wow you have no idea how much that meant to me. I got my first terrible review and I was a little saddened but I'm so glad there are people like you who love my story. That makes me so happy that you enjoy it! I'm writing for you!_

_Little black cat- sorry I haven't been reviewing. My internet has been messing up so it won't open reviews! Oh dear! But I must say I do love you're story. Everything just makes my heart jump for joy! I hate Sirius at the moment too but he's sooooo handsome  I want him back. Oh well it's up to Lela I suppose. Please finish you're story tonight and I will work on finishing the 12th installment! Xo!_

**Disclaimer: **_I declare! That I! SofteyesxX am nothing more than a mere apprentice to the talented JK Rowling. I borrow her characters to use for my own fanfic, but in no way do I own them. For who owns a character? Not I! Pip pip!_

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Chapter 12; Wilted Flowers

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Lela had avoided Sirius the next two weeks. Halloween was only a week and a half away and Lela was looking worse than ever. Lily watched her carefully though, always chasing after her in the hallways and throughout her classes. She was ditching less and less, which added to her strange behavior.

As Lily rounded a corner on her free period while Lela was safely tucked away in Advanced Herbology. Lily wandered the grounds quietly as she made her way up to the castles doors. She sighed softly, it was such a beautiful fall day with the leaves all turning a brilliant shade of gold, purples and reds. With the withering of green leaves, Lily could see how Lela could love this season so much. She sighed softly and climbed the steps the chill biting at her cheeks causing them to rosy as she walked down the main corridor passing the Great Hall. She traced her steps back to where the portrait of the bowl of fruit lay. And when she tickled the pear making the portrait nudge aside she enveloped herself in the smells of the elves kitchens. She smiled to all the little elves and took a few pieces of fruit from them and asked them for a chocolate layer cake for Lela. They nodded vigorously and returned only moments later with what she requested.

She had to admit, the cake was rather large and she smiled to herself as she walked down the hallway carrying a chocolate layer cake probably larger than Peter's gut. She was just mustering over how to grip the glass placement in which the cake sat when James rounded the corner ahead of her. He smiled when he saw her and came up to her slowly and kissed her.

"I was just looking for you yah know? I checked the grounds, but you weren't out there so the next place I thought would be the kitchens," James smiled and Lily's jaw dropped.

"Are you making a notion that I'm fat?" James smile dropped and he shook his head fiercly as he tried to add a defense,

"Oh no that's not what I meant at all. I only meant that-," he stopped though because Lily happened to be breaking out in laughter.

She walked on down the corridor without much talk as James explained to her that Sirius was having a hard time not having Lela as some sort of companion. Lily scoffed at these words and shook her head.

"He's the one that fooled around and broke her heart," she looked at James as she carefully approached the moving staircases, "She would never think of doing anything like that to anyone." James nodded and looked to the floor placing a hand on her lower back as they approached the portrait of the fat lady,

"What are you doing out of class anyways?" Lily looked at him suspiciously as he muttered the password to the fat lady and she swung open slowly. He guided her through the portrait hole and turned to her with a smirk once they were inside and said casually,

"Loo break," Lily laughed as he let his draw drop at her and said in a tone of mock disbelief, "Honestly, when a boy's gotta go, he's gotta go!" Lily bumped her hip to him and took her wand out of her back pocket as she set the cake down. She bewitched the cake to float up to the girl's dorm and sit comfortably on Lela's bedside table.

She then turned to James looping her arms around his neck and standing on her tip toes to plant a kiss to his lips. He reached down her back gripping her bum tightly and pulling her too him. She laughed as he vigorously put her up against a wall and kissed her deeply. She sighed into his lips arching her back into him as she nibbled on his lower lip. She raked her hands through his messy hair and giggled some as his hands caressed her hips. She leaned her neck back so that he covered it with warm kisses. She sighed as she wrapped her legs around his waist and he carried her up to the boy's dorm. Soon she found herself laying on top of messy bed with James Potter on top of her kissing her swollen lips and moving his hand slowly under her first sweater vest, then to her white buttoned blouse making his way up her bare stomach. She sighed as she pushed lightly on the back of his neck lost in pure bliss.

James had succeeded in removing her cloak, sweater vest and blouse, leaving her with just a bra and loosely done Gryffindor tie. She smiled softly at him as his cloak was thrown aside with hers along with his sweater vest, tie and white buttoned up dress shirt. She let her hands roam his bare chest as she sighed softly being enveloped in more kisses. Her hips rotated beneath his as he moved his hand down to slowly undo the irritating buttons that with held from touching and caressing the only thing in the world that meant something to him. 'Love' was the only thought that flew through his mind at the moment as he looked down into her face, her creamy cheeks pinched with pink her green eyes sparkling up to the boy who was slowly becoming more than just a boy. Her red hair spread out like a fiery fan over the white pillow in which cushioned her head. He ran a hand through those precious locks and bent down to kiss her face as her pants slowly slid down her hips. Suddenly though the boy's dorm door burst open sending the two sprawling off the bed.

A disgruntled Sirius had burst into the room shouting loud rants at how unreasonable she was being. The 'she' he was speaking of obviously referred to Lela. James was hastily grabbing for Lily's clothes as Sirius spun around at the noise. His face fell into clear disbelief as he said amazed,

"You guys were not just doing what I think you were doing," Sirius gave a laugh as James handed Lily's blouse, vest and cloak back to her, which she hastily put on, standing to pull up her winters school pants and button them as she hastily tried to fix her tie. Sirius snickered and leaned against his bed post looking at Lily as if she was some prospect. James suddenly socked him in the eye and Sirius doubled forward looking up to mutter,

"As if I haven't been in enough pain, jeez mate I was only looking," Sirius held his eye, stood up and took out his wand muttering a mending curse the reduced the sudden swelling. The bruise would still be there but that was better than having to deal with the pain. He sighed and shrugged his shoulders as James kissed Lily goodbye as she hurried out the door and down the steps feeling completely and utterly embarrassed. The class bell suddenly rang and she looked up at the clock.

She hurried down the hall towards the great double doors to make her way to the greenhouses. When she got there Lela was staring blankly out into space and when she turned to see Lily she smiled absently.

Lily hurried up to her friend and took her arm saying gently to her,

"So how was your class?" in such a motherly fashion Lily thought Lela might burst into tears.

"It was alright," Lela said in a quite tone. Lily sighed and tugged on her friends arm as she said softly,

"When are you going to cheer up and leave this whole ordeal behind you Lela?" Lily was becoming desperate into cheering her up. Lela looked at her softly and just said quietly,

"He snuck into Herbology today, Lily," she looked at her best friend with tear stricken eyes. Lily clucked gently and led her to the Gryffindor tower, there was no point in going to her next class if her friend was upset and if it was just ancient runes with Binns anyways, she nudged Lela and she wiped her eyes before she reached in her cloak pockets to remove a crumpled piece of parchment,

"He threw this at me; it was in the shape of dog when he sent it to me. It lay down on the table and opened up in front of me. Here read it," she said thrusting the piece of parchment in her hand.

Lily took the piece of parchment that was badly mangled as if someone had opened it, crumpled it, and then reopened it only to repeat the process. She read it to herself which said,

_If only you'd forgive me,_

_I kiss you a thousand times over._

_Don't let this stray go._

_I can't get over you Lela Grace._

_You are the most beautiful,_

_The most stubborn girl, _

_I have ever had the pleasure of meeting._

_Please, just endure one last kiss,_

_And tell me if you can't feel anything._

_You can't sit there and expect me not to look at you with the same eyes,_

_Once I've kissed those lips._

At the bottom was a crudely, but artisticly drawn picture of two people in the process of a passionate kiss. Lela sniffed and shook her head saying angrily,

"I can't fall for crap like that," she shook her head and grabbed the parchment crumpling it up and throwing it back inside her pocket. Lily thought it strange that she didn't just throw it down the empty stairwell into a darkened abyss where it would never be found again.

As Lily guided her friend into the Gryffindor common room, Sirius stood from his place on the couch.

"Lela," he breathed as he saw her tear stricken face. Lela never cried. She would never want to be seen crying like this. That was why she hastily wiped her eyes and made her way over to the staircase with Lily. Lily smiled to James sympathetically, them both having to deal with emotionally upset friends.

As they reached the stairs Lela felt a hand pressing on her arm,

"Please, just talk to me," he whispered to her. But Lela's gaze and stubborn way would not be broken. She shook her head and threw his hand off her arm. He took it again and Lela all but yelled,

"Let go of me!" Sirius shook his head and Lily looked at him in disbelief. But Lela looked as if she endured these fights every day with him.

"Just let me have one kiss Lela, please," his eyes were honestly pleading but Lela would have none of it. Betrayal was the worst in her book, and her book was thick.

"I wouldn't kiss you even if the life of the great Albus Dumbledore depended on it," she spat at him and jerked her arm free. She hurried up the stairs this time, Lily following close behind and calling after her, shutting the door quietly as Lela went over and surveyed the cake,

"It's from me," Lily said softly. Lela turned to her and smiled half heartedly and sat down on the bed, motioning for Lily to join her. She sighed and took her place on the bed as she and Lela gorged a six pound cake.

Sirius was muttering curse words including Lela's name as he stomped back over,

"See! She won't even give me a chance!" but James was too enthralled with one of his essays that he had forced himself to get done.

"Why should she give you the time of day again Padfoot?" James said distractedly, thoughts of a topless Lily running through his mind as he scribbled potions for a cure to a mangled limb. Sirius just snorted and sank back into the couch watching the flames flicker as the evening light shined bright over the hills. It was not yet 4:30, but soon the light would be fading.

Sirius' face was enveloped in the fire's light as he contemplated some sort of way to make her speak to him again. His eyes lit up suddenly at the stroke up his brilliant idea.

The Hallow's Eve ball was coming up and he could-

He would just sneak up there and-

His eyes brightened with each idea he credited himself for. They were brilliant for someone such as Sirius. Sure he was smart, but he wasn't very clever when coming to scheming. Usually Remus was the one for all that. He smiled into the fire as James lifted his head saying unusually angrily,

"What are you so happy about?" Sirius just shook his head and rolled out a piece of parchment to begin his work.

Aha! Another well thought out plan, to be put into full effect. She would have to talk to him. He'd win her over with his charm and his mysterious ways.

"Let the mystery begin," he sighed as he looked over the scribbled parchment.


	13. Gold,Green,Red the Leaves of Salvation

**Author's Note: **_Sorry there haven't been any chapter updates lately. You know the damn thing. School, homework, writing stories for my English honors 2 class! Woop. Not as fun as this I must say. Sorry if anyone was confused with the last chapter, I'll try to keep it flowing and let you know all the details, not just the ones that pass through my head and I forget to type. Hooray! On with the show!_

**Disclaimer: **_Swing Swing Swing, I don't know Hp, can you help me find a way to carry on again.- AAR_

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**Chapter 13; Gold, Green, Red; The Leaves of Salvation**

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The very moment Lela Grace awakened that morning after her quarrel with Sirius she scampered out of bed and out onto the landing of the girls dormitory stairs. Not realizing she was still in shorts and a very tight t-shirt she ran down the stairs and passed an astonished James and Lily who were snuggling on the couch,

"Lela, what are you-," but her sentence was cut short due to Lela's sudden absence. Lily looked to James who had gone all starry eyed looking at Lily and watched her face. Lily sighed and shook her head regrettably. 'Where in Merlin's beard was that girl off to?' Lily asked herself as she turned sharply down the corridor. She smiled to herself as the thought of Sirius approaching her ran across her mind.

Sirius had unwillingly walked up to Lily with a soft push from James. Lily had been mulling over some new Astrology book she aquirred from her loving parents, yes loving. Sirius had held a hand behind his head and looked at the ascending gargoyles before grabbing Lily's attention.

"Oh, hey Lily, what are you up to?" he had said rather slowly. Lily peered up at him and snapped her book shut before standing to face him at as much of eye level that she could get. He held his eyes up in shock and said to her, "Before you yell at me or anything I just wanted to ask for your help." Lily had eyed him skeptically on that cold dreary day. Lela had been sulking for too long and she wanted her out of it as much as anyone did but she didn't know how Sirius could fix things. Lily crossed her arms and said oh-so-very dramatically,

"Humor me," Sirius had revealed his plan of doing romantic and mysterious antics to send Lela reeling and fall head over heels for him all over again. Lily had been skeptical, but she had to admit, some of his ideas were quite good.

As she rounded another corner she all but collided with Lela who was standing in the doorway of the great front doors. Her jaw had dropped to her chest and she was looking across the grounds in astonishment. Even though it was late October, the leaves hadn't all changed.

Lela dropped the note that fluttered to the ground. A hand was drawn to her mouth as she looked around. The grounds had been turned into an autumn wonderland. Different shades of red, orange, gold, green and purple were fluttering to the grounds as a soft breeze escalated the windswept leaves. On each tree there were markings engraved that said "I love you". Every tree seemed to be covered with the engravings and Lela dropped to her knees as she looked around.

"I wonder who could have done this," Lily whispered. Lela whirled on her and gave her a stern look as she said forcefully,

"Who do you think? It was that prat Sirius; trying to win me over with such stupid gestures," Lela huffed but couldn't help but feel her heart ache as she looked out over the grounds. Lily shook her head convincingly and said softly,

"No, that can't be right. The whole gang was up in the boy's dorm. I stayed up there with James until the early morning and Sirius was up with us all night helping with the-," she stopped herself short. Lela didn't know about the map. Lily shrugged and continued, "James' homework." Lela looked at her for a long moment as if trying to read her thoughts. For a moment, Lily was afraid she might actually be able to. Lily didn't know _that_ much about her.

Lela got up from her position on the ground and slowly said as she looked at the piece of parchment, "It doesn't look like this handwriting. At first I thought it was a threat but-," Lily suppressed a laugh. She already knew what the damn piece of parchment said, James and Sirius wrote it together and Lily had laughed all night long. It had read,

_The night swoons as do I,_

_My heart aches as the stars in the sky._

_The light shines through your hair,_

_As I breathe a sigh._

_The grounds will breathe,_

_The night may fly,_

_I will find you,_

_It's what I do._

_Find me on the grounds in the early morn,_

_There you will see your fate,_

_Don't come too late._

Lily was grinning from ear to ear until Lela turned around and stared at her. Lily shrugged with a stern look on her face.

"Let's go to the Great Hall and get you something to eat," Lily draped an arm around her shoulder and looked down at her apparel, "Well, maybe you should change first, you might draw some attention."

Lela looked down at herself and gasped as she dashed back to Gryffindor Tower.

Lily turned around to look back out onto the grounds and saw Sirius creep out from behind a tree cautiously. He smiled slightly and Lily gave him a thumbs-up.

As the girls ate into their breakfast Lela's face was slightly contorted with what Lily could mistake for happiness. She nudged her with her shoulder and looked to her side to glance at her face. The grin on Lela's face had progressed as she nudged Lily back. Lily felt the sunshine come back.

James and Sirius were out on the deserted Quidditch pitch in the soft autumn breeze. Remus and Peter sat just outside the pitch, Remus once again endulged in a book as Peter clapped at every fine move James made.

Sirius raised a bare arm to wipe the sweat from his forehead as he looked behind him to see Lily and Lela stroll between the trees that skimmed the outer boundaries of the Forbidden Forest. Sirius sighed and shook his head taking a sip from a bottle of water and tossed it aside as he confided in James,

"She got the note," James just nodded as he drank a long gulp from his water looking over Sirius' shoulder watching Lily's arse swagger from side to side. "Do you think she suspects me?" Once again James just shook his head as he finished off his water and threw the empty bottle aside. He wiped his mouth with his arm and ran a hand through his messy windblown hair.

"Not a chance, Lily won't allow her too," James nodded slightly and finished with, "Lily's one convincing liar." Sirius laughed and shook his head as they mounted their brooms again, once again in the air.

Sirius looked over his shoulder to his one beautiful thought link arms with Lily and walk around the way of leaves and kick them high in the air. The smile that spread across her face almost made Sirius lose balance on his broomstick, but a bludger that swiped his ear brought him back to his senses as a laughing James sped away with a love struck Sirius not far behind.

That night as Lily and Lela lay tucked up in their dorm talking animatedly about Professor Slughorns most recent lecture a sleepy Sirius and James sat in chairs across from the dieing fire.

A sharp tap sounded on the window and made Lela and Lily turn around. Lela got up and walked to the window opening it to find an owl with a white rose in its beak. She took the rose and untied a scroll of parchment that lay attached to its leg. Lily looked at her friend cautiously as she unrolled the parchment. She gasped and looked up at Lily. There was a pouch tucked into the scroll that fell at her feet and made a loud thunk as it hit the cold stone floor.

"What is it?" Lily said sitting up gently looking at the pouch in fake astonishment. Lela bent down and picked up the heavy pouch carrying it over to Lily. She unrolled the parchment and looked at it for a moment, then seemed to read it again. She gasped and said soflty,

"No way," before she handed the scroll to Lily hurriedly and took the pouch dumping it out. The contents of the bag slid across the bed and revealed a mass amount of galleons upon galleons. Lily gasped and looked to Lily as she read the message out loud.

_I did not find you on the grounds,_

_I did not see you in the hall,_

_Where have you gone?_

_The most beloved one of all?_

_Halloween creeps upon us fast,_

_As do signs of your birth,_

_Take this and spend it well._

_Halloween comes,_

_Curse it well._

"You've got to be kidding me," Lily breathed. Would Sirius go this far as to ensure Lela's place at the Halloween celebration? She shook her head and looked at the shimmering amount of gold before her. He would, she concluded.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to do with it. I mean I cant give it back, because I don't know who sent it to me. It can't be Sirius, he doesn't know my birthdays coming up. Does he?" she turned to Lily who shook her head vigorously as Lela looked back to the Galleons. "Last Hogsmeade visit has already passed, I can't very well get a dress." She breathed as she looked at Lily.

A smile crept across Lily's face as she nodded saying softly, "Oh I know a way." Lela watched her carefully and laughed picking up the galleons and smiled as they made soft clinging sounds as they hit one another.

Lily rushed downstairs crashing head long into James. They tumbled to the floor from their collision and James tried to catch her but only attempted in landing on her. They hit the ground with a loud thunk and Lily let out a groan. James smiled and said mischievously,

"Well this is a blast to the past," he grinned that wicked grin and Lily just cringed and snapped,

"Yeah, so get up off me Potter!" James' eyes grew wide and he smirked as he rolled off of Lily only to pull her on top of him.

"So what brings you to this part of the common room?" she laughed and tucked a wavy red lock behind her ear and looked comfortably at him sighing and saying,

"Well, Lela up there got a present and I need an itsy bitsy favor," she put on her best smile and James scoffed,

"Oh? And what does this favor include?" he laid his arms behind his head and looked across her emerald eyes memorizing each twisting line.

"And invisibility cloak and an oh-so-special map that I know my beloved will lend me!" she pleaded with him and he just laughed and shook his head,

"You? Ms. Prefect of the year? I don't know, I think I'm starting to become a bad influence on you, sneaking off to where ever after hours and junk. Where are you going?"

"Do you have to ask so many questions?" she cocked her head to the side and he laughed,

"Yeah, it's my duty if you haven't noticed. Where are you going?"

"Somewhere far far away!" she made a spooky noise and he rolled her over on her back and sat above her his legs straddling her stomach as he leaned down to kiss her nose. He looked into her eyes and smiled at her, "We're off to Hogsmeade to buy Lela a costume for Hallow's Eve dance!" she giggled and poked his stomach which, characteristically was rock hard.

"Mm," he just said as he leaned down and threw her within kiss upon kiss. She couldn't escape, nor did she want. She just brought her soft hands up to the side of his face and stroked her thumb over his cheek. His hands roamed her sides innocently as she giggled within the kiss nibbling on his lower lip as he plunged deeper into his all-too-good kiss.

She sighed and forgot the world for a moment before she broke apart this incessant snogging and looked at him whispering softly,

"So can I borrow it?" she put on a meek smile and he nodded gently, his warming smile reaching to the tips of her toes. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck continuing from their snogging session.


	14. From White Roses to Lily Flowers

**Authors Note: **_Wow, you guys think my stories confusing enough? I thought it was, sorry I'm trying to write it while balancing some chemistry homework. It will play out and Lily will once again be the main focus here._

_Your comments were amazing by the way. Loved the one liners. EXCEPT FOR CAT'S! woop! _

**Disclaimer: **_JK would never write something as confusing as this; so to answer that all time question, I don't own HP or any of its characters except for Lela who I have given birth to from my great imagination of a womb! Graphic!_

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Chapter 14; From White Roses to Lily Flowers

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Lily crept down from the boy's dorm with the cloak thrown about her shoulders as she shoved Lela hard and fast. Lela turned with a scream and Lily laughed throwing the cloak to her shoulders as she said,

"You coming?" Lily smiled her warming smile and Lela looked at her friend aghast.

"An invisibility cloak? You've got to be kidding me!" Lily shook her head and smiled waving the Marauders Map in her face.

"This is even better. It's called the Marauder's Map for obvious reasons. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter made it. Just finished it actually; tells you where everyone is inside of the school!" Lily bounced from foot to foot in anticipation of heading on an adventure alone. Lela let out a scoff and murmured as she snatched the map from Lily's sweaty hands,

"Their bloody brilliant," She shook her head and laughed as Lily asked her if she had the money. When confirmation was given by a jingle in Lela's pocket Lily threw the cloak over both of them and proceeded out of the portrait hole.

"Lumos," Lily whispered as she pointed her wand tip to the parchment that was covered in names. The halls were deserted though except for a roaming Filch who was passing around on the third floor. Lily quickly found the secret passage way James had directed her to and the giggling girls proceeded through the witches hump down into a tunnel.

"Ouch" Lela whispered as Lily slipped and stepped on her toe.

"Sorry," came the soft reply from Lily.

"Are we there yet?" Lela whined almost child like and Lily just rolled her eyes and laughed.

After a couple more minutes of stumbling through the dark tunnel that had unexpected twists and turns, Lily climbed up and pushed the top off of the stone covering that showed her into the basement of Honeydukes. She hopped out and helped Lela out stuffing the cloak in her big pants that she borrowed from James. Lela tucked the Marauders Map in the back of her pants and put her shirt over it after Lily pointed the wand tip and whispered 'Mischief Managed.' They slowly crept of the dust covered stairs to the uncommonly empty shop. It was during a no traveling day obviously so the girls were pretty much set.

Lela grabbed a lolly pop on her way out and walked out of the store with it as an aghast Lily shot her a look of utter disappointment. The large clock that shook nervously at the end of Hogsmeade showed that it was only eight that evening, so the girls headed off to Madame Melandina for Lela's unexpected shopping spree.

As they entered the candle filled shopped Lily looked around, her red hair was swaying from side to side mocking the flames in an attempt to shed a more fire like look to it. Lela bounded to the front counter and looked around quietly at all the hundreds of fabric that donned the walls and hung messily in corners and on shelves.

As Lily approached the counter Madame Melandina emerged from her station in the back, obviously realizing she had customers. She smiled warmly to them and Lily said all but immediately,

"Madame Melandina! We're looking for a costume for Lela and me! You know, Hallow's Eve Dance coming up and all. We want to look smashing, just smashing!" Lily glowed and Madame Melandina nodded saying in a thick foreign accent,

"Buz ov curse!" she showed them to the back room and Lela sat in a cushiony chair as Madame Melandina turned to her and asked quite delicately, suggesting a softer person beneath her robust outfit,

"Whut mut zoo beh shlooking vor?" at this, Lela was at a complete loss for words. She opened her mouth to speak but realized that she had not thought out of what she had in mind.

"What would you suggest Madame Melandina?" Lela asked as a suspicious looking Lily looked at her from the corner of her eye as if she had the perfect idea. Madame Melandina looked her over and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth as if in mock consideration.

"If I may have a say, I think I know what would be perfect!" Lela looked over at Lily who was bouncing on the balls of her feet and looking like an eager puppy waiting for a treat. Madame Melandina gave her the run of the shop, Lily picking out fabrics carefully and feeling them for texture, comfort and style. She smiled at all this and Lela watched in a daze.

"So Lily, what is it that you're going to wear to this oh-so-fabulous dance?" Lela asked as she joined her friend and plucked some colored cloth from the walls.

"Not a damn clue," she muttered as she reached for a higher shelf that showed a shimmering fabric. Lela smiled and started to also take down some fabrics holding it out in front of Lily to check the color against her skin tone and hair color.

As the fittings began for the mysterious outfit that Lily had picked out for Lela their were laughs shared of one fine morning when all the Marauders had scampered into the Great Hall noisily, Peter running to catch up with the boys. Peeves had been chasing them with water balloons full of green paint and j-ello at which point James and turned so abruptly Sirius crashed into him, causing a major pile up of the boys. They were slaughtered with the green paint and walked around with it until the day had been done. The paint had been charmed, to their utter delight, to be unremovable until the sun had set.

As the stitching was finished with Lela's outfit she looked into the mirror and gasped. It was amazing, even with the needles poking her sides and the hems lashing out. She smiled and Madame Melandina who nodded and said carefully,

"Zi shink jish well beh tha un!" Lela nodded vigorously and soon it was Lily's turn. The fabric Lela had chosen fell around her skin so perfectly and hugged her in all the right places, accenting both hair and eyes that Lily thought she might be mistaken for muggle royalty. She laughed and did a full turn looking over her shoulder and holding her red tendrels above her head as she looked at the bare back it showed.

"Oh yes, definitely!" the girls laughed and paid Madame Melandina and promised to return that weekend to pick up the outfits. As they jostled out of the shop they were laughing with tears in their eyes and wondered at their sudden giddiness.

Lily suggested they stop by the ice cream shop and get some ice cream for themselves and as they entered through the door they spotted someone they never would have expected to be there.

Judith Vane sat and flirted with the ice cream boy that stood behind the counter. He looked no more than twenty five as the girls hastily ducked behind a booth. Lily covered her face as she heard the little twit brag about how she had some sort of right to be in Hogsmeade when others didn't. But what Lily heard next made her cheeks flare up and her eyes dance an evil one.

"Jamsie, the one I was telling you about," she laughed at this a tinkling annoying sort of laugh like that of donkey and continued on, "Well he approached me just the other day you know? Said, he said to me, that uhm," she leaned in closer and whispered, "That he was getting tired of that Evans girl. She is the biggest prat I've ever seen. She thinks she owns the damn school that one." she giggled again and spun around to lean against the counter and tilt her head back, "Yep, should be any day now that he comes back for me. He and I, we had a night we did. I knew it was love," she sighed and closed her eyes remembering this 'night'. "And let me tell you, this boy, was big." She laughed and leaned in closer to the boy. Lily's face boiled and she gripped the ends of the table with nails that sharpened at the end, "I mean, I've had big before, but I mean this one." she scoffed and laughed sliding on the counter and trying to wrap her arm around the boy. The boy didn't look too pleased with this. "Just a week ago we did it you know," she bit her lower lip and giggled as she whispered, "And we almost got caught by that little prat, but James and I, we're one for danger," she made a sort of moaning sound before Lily jumped from her hiding spot Lela trying to tug her back to the floor.

"REPRIMANDO!" Lily shouted tears staining her eye lids as the spell shot forward and seemed to grab Judith Vane by the throat and tug her up the wall. Judith made a gasping sound and clapped the wall before Lily swished her wand again the hold growing tighter. It wasn't until Judith was blue in the face that Lily gave any indication that she was letting up. Finally Lily dropped her wand to her side and let Judith fall to the floor a bit woozy and dazed from the incident. Lela was up in a flash tugging Lily's arm to get her out of the shop. They dashed the rest of the way back to Honeydukes.

Lily's mind was racing with questions, 'James had been with Judith? Judith VANE!' she didn't understand why he wouldn't tell her about this. Obviously she had gotten angry but it would have been better to hear it from him than over hearing it in an ice cream shop at eleven at night. Then a stunning thought seemed to halt her. Lela turned to look back at her friend as she whispered,

"Lily?" Lily collapsed to the ground in sobs, 'Last week? They had- and she almost-.' Lela dropped to her knees beside Lily and drew her in a hug. Lily sobbed into her shoulder not knowing what to believe. If James had kept this from her, what more could he have kept?

What else would he possibly want to hide?


	15. A Witled Petal

**Authors Note: **_I'm way too excited with this chapter to say much but I do love reviews. My heart smiles and it's just wonderful! Thank you all for the reviews. Yeah this is going to be a fun chapter._

**Disclaimer: **_Too much excitement, not a HP owner yada yada yada. CHAPTER!_

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Chapter 15; A Wilted Petal

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As Lela all but dragged Lily back to the common room under the cloak she muttered softly to her distraught friend,

"She was making it up and you know it Lil's. I don't know why you'd get so overworked. Yes, the possibility of James dating that skid isn't hard to believe but she was making that up about having him last week. She was just trying to impress that kid. Who I might add was not that good looking," Lela smiled and looked down to Lily who had been nothing but silent the entire way back. She sighed and kicked at the Fat Lady's portrait and muttered the password to her as the Fat Lady gave her a look of utter disrespect.

James was sleeping on an armchair with a magazine of quidditch laid over his stomach. She threw the cloak off of them and urged Lily up the stairs as she stumbled quietly. Lily didn't seem to notice the sleeping James through puffed up eyes and probably wouldn't want to say anything.

As Lela approached the armchair in an angry stride her hair seemed to curl at the ends uncharacteristically. She pulled up one foot, put it on the arm of the chair and with unexpected strength overturned the chair with a screaming James who clattered to the hard floor with a heavy chair on top.

"I do a good thing and you mess it up!" Lela all but screamed. She walked past him and up the boys dorm. Her steps collided hard with the hard stone and James looked around confused as he chased after her saying sleepily,

"Whatdoyahmean?" Lela turned on him and caused James to stagger back with her evil glare. She removed the Marauders Map from her back and smacked him over the head with it,

"Judith Vane! JUDITH VANE POTTER!" she yelled as he looked at her wide eyed and shook his head with her abrupt use of his last name. he felt a little childish in her presence as if he knew he did something wrong but not knowing exactly what.

"Judith Vane?" he replied confusingly, "What does she had to do with anything?"

Lela looked at him angrily and explained animatedly of their encounter and what all she said, all the while James' eyes growing wider and angrier. When she finished Lela turned and climbed the last few steps to the boys dorm and charged the door with a loud bang as many of it's patrons sat up wide eyed and sleepy in the dark dorm.

"So now, Lily is heartbroken because of you're ill responsibility to tell her you had once dated her-,"

"Lela!" James yelled as he ruffled his hair. He calmed his tone and continued, "I never dated Judith." Lela turned and looked at him a little awkwardly in the dark room as many of the boy's had climbed out of their beds to hear their quarrel.

"What did you say?" she asked confused.

"I never dated Judith Vane. I've heard she's fancied me for about two years now, but never in my days have I ever touched the girl. Nor did I last week for that matter. You of all people should know that."

"Really?" Lela asked surprised trying to see a hint of deceit in James' eyes in the dark room which was all but impossible.

"Really," he sighed as he looked around and yelled, "Oy! What is this a conference! Go back to sleep you prats!"

"Thank you ever so much for waking me Prongsie," said Sirius sleepily as a light shined on his naked torso. Lela's eyes shot to him for a moment then turned back to James saying hastily,

"You fix this," Lela then dropped the Marauder's Map and his cloak on the bed and walked towards the door. Sirius watched her go dreamily all but resisting the urge to jump up and kiss her but thought against it.

Lela turned for one last say as she spoke gently,

"Lily gave Judith quite a scare in the ice cream shop, I'm starting to think you're rubbing off on her. Took her up against the wall," and with that Lela turned to follow the stairs down into the common room then up to her own dorm.

James laughed slightly and shook his head as he plopped on his bed with a sigh and muttered,

"I have damage control duty tomorrow boys. Try not to get in the way," he said as the boys just muttered and Sirius blew out his lantern.

The next morning Lily awoke early to a blaring sun that shone on her face. She sighed, groggy and irritated with the day already as she dressed and stumbled down the stairs. She stumbled so much at one point that she was sent into a fall down the stairs. Luckily, she was towards the bottom and warm pair of arms caught her gently.

"Careful on those stairs Lily, I'm in no mood to carry anyone to Madame Pomfrey's today." A stunning James smiled weakly at Lily. She pushed her way out of his arms and marched passed him. But James wouldn't let her get away so easily. He grabbed for her arm and received a hasty slap across his cheek.

Not like he was going to hold it against her or anything but didn't she think she was overreacting a little?

"Okay, great way to start off the day. Personally I like pancakes and orange juice, but this works today. Let's just not make it routine hm?" he smiled softly and tugged her to him. She resisted but he said softly.

"Judith Vane is a filthy liar Lillian Marie Evans, and you know that more than I do," the whispered brushed across Lily's ear. She sighed knowing she might have overreacted just a little, but it hit her hard and just the thought of it had caused her to temporarily go insane. The boy was indeed her rock wall at the time and that wall had crumbled at that defining moment.

Lily collapsed into his arms and breathed in his scent. She knew it all last night, but the thought had gotten to her. She sighed and shook her head.

"Mind filling me in on the girlfriends you've had so I know who to watch out for?" Lily said tiredly. He laughed and nodded leading her out of the portrait hole quietly carrying her hand down the hall as he pointed out most of the damn girls in the hallways. She sighed and shook her head saying, "Nevermind, I don't want to know anymore," a headache was slowly making its way across her left temple at how he managed to pay attention to all these girls in the short of amount of time he had been at Hogwarts.

They turned a corner and noticed a small circle had formed in the middle of the hallway. Some people were talking hastily but a loud yell came from the center. Sirius bolted out from the center and grabbed Lily tugging her in.

"She's gone mad," Sirius said worriedly.

"Who?" Lily breathed as they broke to the center. But she knew who he was talking about the moment he had burst through the circle.

Lela stood in the center squaring off a very frightened Judith Vane and screaming obscenities at the top of her lungs at her. Judith stood very still as if Lela might attack if she moved.

"Lela!" Lily screamed over the mumbling and cursing. Lela wheeled around and stared at Lily.

"Oh good morning Lily, just finishing up a little businness, I'll be done in a minute," she turned and a grimace returned to her face.

"What businness might that be Lela?" Lily said calmly slowly approaching her friend, but she was already striding towards a staggering Judith. When she was in a foot of her Lela recoiled her fist and shot it out for Judith's face. It connected and sent Judith flying back on her bum into the crowd. Blood poured from her nose and she screamed in pain as James and Sirius both darted forward.

Lela was trying to advance again but Sirius had grabbed her just in time retaining her arms behind her back and tugging her down the hall. Lela walked away calmly. Hey who said you needed magic to kick ass in the wizarding world?

"What in Merlin's beard do you think you were doing back there?" Sirius said angrily as he dragged her down a corridor with a close Lily and James trailing behind.

"Let go of me or you'll find out the hard way like Vane back there," she said through gritted teeth.

"Try it," he murmured as he pushed her into an abandoned class room. She turned around angry faced and said just as angrily,

"Why would you care Black?" her fists were clenched as Lily and James skidded into the classroom. Lily took station by Lela as she tried to calm her down. What point was there to that?

"You're impossible Lela," Sirius said as he turned to leave. Lela's eyes softened a little. Did he just give up? She was slightly confused as James slowly shrugged and chased after his down trodden friend.

"What just happened here?" Lela asked confused. Lily looked her friends face over and said slowly,

"I think he just doesn't care anymore," Lily looked towards the door and sighed softly.

Lela's pocket weighed down a little more as a silver charm bracelet lay tucked away. A solitary charm lay on it; a heart. She had received it that morning when she woke up finding it once again from her secret messenger. This game was starting to tire her as she couldn't trace it back to the sender. The heart was engraved with a spiraling LG on it. She sighed and walked out of the classroom pondering over the possibilities.

Her thought also was directed to her soar hand that had swelled up slightly from its encounter with Judith's grimy face. At least Lily and James were okay. She mulled over these thoughts over breakfast and decided to disregard the hurtful feeling in the pit of her stomach. a feeling that went by the name of Sirius Black.


	16. Love Blossomsagain

**Authors Note: ** _Boys are dumb huh? Woop! Well I just wanted to tell Cat that her story amazed me once more! Dreams Stained Scarlet everyone! Yes, my computer is kicking me in the shins again! So I couldn't leave a review! But it was brilliant cat dear! Just brilliant! Funny thing actually, when I was thinking today of what to write for this chapter I saw you had put Snape in there and I had thought the same thing this very morning! Spookay! Ha! Everyone I started school three weeks ago so sorry if these updates aren't as quick as they should be. I do love homework –note the sarcasm there-_

_Okay author's note is getting too long._

_To put in one more thing to answer Danielle (I think your lovely name was) Yes! Lela Grace is spawned from my very imagination! No help nothing. I needed a spicy character and Lela volunteered. I know I'm a freak. DON'T JUDGE ME!_

**Disclaimer- ** _School blows and I can't write this very well. Oh yeah! I do not own HP or any of its characters accept the ones I create (aka Lela!). So children please sit back, fasten your seatbelts and keep your hands arms and legs inside the margins at all times! Enjoy your ride and thank you for riding Lustless Lawns. _

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Chapter 16; Love Blossoms….again

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Lily could not remember when Ancient Ruins had ever been so boring. Usually she was apt to study and learn about the ancient wizards and witches of earlier times. But today, her hopes had fallen and she had given up on this subject. And we all know Lily never gives up. She proceeded in letting her face fall flat on the table as she murmured desperately,

"Somebody save me," and just at this moment a familiar face burst through the door grabbing Professor Binns ghostly attention for the first time in a very long while.

"Professor Binns! Thank goodness you're here!" Lela strode over breathless with a ragged looking James tailing behind. Lily's eyes suddenly shot forward, even his mere presence was electrifying. He turned and smiled softly at her putting a finger to his lips before he turned back to the Professor saying desperately,

"Oh it's horrible! Just horrible Binnzie!" the ghost seemed quite used to this little nickname and he only seemed be confused further.

"The headmaster," Lela gasped for air dramatically, "Needs to see Ms. Evans," another gasp, "Immediately!"

Professor Binns nodded and motioned for Lily to go.

"Yes, yes of course my dear children! Go!" he said in his monotone voice.

The trio rushed out of the classroom together as if in some hurry and once they were halfway down the hall Lela stopped and laughed madly. James too turned and slapped his knee as he turned to look at the figure that always seemed to transfix him.

"What's this emergency about? Shouldn't we be heading to Dumbledore's office?" This comment from Lily only proceeded to jostle the two more in fits of laughter.

"What," Lily said irritably. James just drew her into a kiss that Lily obliged to immediately as he broke apart saying softly to her as Lela quieted,

"It was a rescue mission Lily flower. I knew you wouldn't want to stay in there for too long now would you?" he asked her as Lily smiled and kissed his sultry lips delicately. He smiled and looped his arm around her waist as Lela coughed in her throat to gain their attention. When this didn't work she sighed and started walking down the hallway.

"I will see you two later then; in the common room before dinner?" Lela called as she walked quietly down the hall, a small tinkling amidst her wrist. Another charm had been added to her bracelet arriving that morning, once again, by owl. The charm was a tiny jewel, a soft fluorescent stone that changed colors in the light, her birthstone. Lela fiddled with the charms as she turned the corridor, the soft smacking sound of the lover's lips far behind her.

James and Lily stood entwined in each other's arms as James planted a soft kiss to her lips. He whispered sweet nothings in her ear that made her blush and told her to come with him. He led her to the large double doors that opened to reveal a ground full of color and crunchy leaves. He helped her down the steps as a soft wind picked up around their feet and blew the softly colored leaves too and fro.

As he led her around the damp grounds her hand held tightly in his talking of the night and the days and how much they brought he slowly walked his way towards the large lake where the giant squid flipped a tentical or two as the two lovebirds settled in the warm touch of each other.

Lily nuzzled her face into James' warm neck as he wrapped his arms around her waist tickling her lower back as he watched the giant squid. He could not remember when he had felt so happy. He swayed the red headed wonder in his arms as he could hear her hum a soft tune into his neck.

He could feel her soft heartbeat weigh against his and felt his heart break ever so softly, the strands holding it together stretching relentlessly. The girl had him hooked; oh did she ever. She lifted her head to look at him ever so slightly and just that one small little look drove him crazy. She smiled and his heart leapt with great excitement.

"Thank you for rescuing me James," she whispered softly as he swayed her body against his.

"Any time Lily flower," he smiled and planted a kiss on her lips as the day wore on. Lovers don't know time or how it works, their days are spent in utter infatuation.

Later that evening in the Great Hall as the whole gang sat down to a meal, James by Lily, Remus between Lela and Sirius and Peter at the end of Lily, they talked like friends brought only on through years of experience. Lela and Sirius however were not to be seen talking to each other although Sirius stole some glances Lela's way and let his eyes drop to the intriguing bracelet on her wrist.

Lela and Lily excused themselves early claiming they had mounds of homework to finish. James didn't quite buy the story as he looked to Lela who didn't seem to be buying the story herself; when did she ever do homework?

The two girls tromped off down the hall arm in arm laughing at the top of their voices as they rounded an empty corridor. Lily wanted to talk to Lela about Sirius but she didn't see any opportunity appearing anytime soon.

Severus Snape followed his footsteps down the same empty corridor clutching a book to his side, his greasy hair falling in his face. So Severus wasn't the most popular kid at Hogwarts, so what? The girls were singing a cheery muggle song as they collided head on with Snape. They all fell to the floor, Severus' book flying askew and bumping against the hard stone wall of the corridor. He hurried to his feet as his eyes locked on Lela. She gave him a wary stare for the longest moment before her gaze shifted towards his book.

"Death Eaters of the Dark Age," Lela read aloud as she tilted her head sideways to read the book, "A little light reading?" Severus snatched up his book and looked at Lily with pure disgust in his eyes as he said

"Filthy mudbloods are invading the school I see," Lela's eyes widened as she looked to Lily. But Severus had made a mistake, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter had been steadily walking not far behind the girls. Three strong beams of spell shot from three out of the four boys' wands. They collided with Snape's face and he was thrown back into the stone wall.

Lela gasped and looked from the Marauders to Snape not knowing who to hex first. Lily however had taken no time in hexing James and Sirius. Remus ducked and covered away from her as she fumed,

"I can handle this!" Lily turned and saw the unconscious Snape and sighed saying, "Great," as she strided over to him and slowly waved her wand over his face allowing him to come too. Snape's eyes fluttered open and once he saw who was kneeling before him he brought up one foot and kicked Lily hard in the stomach as she collided back. Lily gave a thump to the floor and cough as she stood the breath knocked from her as Lela said annoyed,

"What is this second grade!" she kicked Snape's book down the hall and said to him all but pleadingly as the boys regained their stance's behind her, "Go," Snape looked at her for awhile before Lela shoved him towards his book. He scurried away and disappeared around a corner.

"What was that about?" Lily asked as they carried on down the hall, James rubbing the back of his neck and Sirius stumbling to keep up. Lela shook her head as they crawled uncharacteristically through the portrait hole after muttering the password to the fat lady who once again seemed to disapprove of their disheveled state. Lela stumbled over to the couch and collapsed onto it as Lily sunk into an armchair. She looked to her book that seemed to sit lonely in it's corner by the fire. She still had a lot of work to get done. She sighed and rubbed her eyes as James came to sit down in front of her leaning against her legs. She leaned down and wrapped her arms around his neck letting her hands fall midway down his chest as she kissed his neck, "thank you," she whispered as he stared absently into the fire.

Sirius was switching his weight from foot to foot trying to figure out where to sit. Lela's eyes were closed but he knew she'd hear him and recognize his footsteps if he came to close. After observing her seemed-to-be sleeping form for a couple more minutes he staggered passed her much like a drunken man. Her eyes parted momentarily before they sunk in and closed again. Lily watched Sirius warily and mouthed 'Careful' to him as if Lela were some sort of dangerous animal. But he just proceeded in sinking down in front of the fire close to Lela's softened face. He sighed and gazed into the fire as Lily watched Lela's eyes open and close slowly as if she was just waking.

Yet nothing happened. 'Maybe something finally changed in Lela,' Lily thought to herself as she lowered her eyes to James Quidditch magazine.

Three days before the Hallow's Eve dance, Lily, Lela, James, Remus and Sirius walked into Hogwarts bundled up against the chilling fall wind. Lily and Lela walked ahead of the awkward threesome Marauders. Peter had seemed scurry off to some unknown place early that morning. The girls didn't give it much thought but the boys looked around suspiciously as if half expecting him to show up at any corner.

They excused themselves after the boys motioned to seek warmth in the Three Broomsticks where as Lela and Lily said they had to pick up their costumes. Lily noticed that Sirius and Lela still weren't talking but Lela seemed to not mind him being around much. She even caught her friend sneaking glances at him every so often; Lily then would nudge her in the side and smile wickedly.

They entered Madame Melandina's shop once more and were greeted by thousands of buzzing girls. Lela rolled her eyes and grabbed Lily's sleeve to her long cloak and pulled her towards the back of shop. She slipped through a door hidden by loads of fabric where Madame Melandina was wrapping up costumes and dresses of the sort with a look of pure exasperation on her face.

"Madame Melandina! So nice to see you," Lela said with fake hapinness. She then sauntered over and started helping her wrap up dresses and costumes at top speed, Lily also joining in with comments such as, 'Ugh, what a horrible outfit.' 'Who the hell ordered this?' and 'Ha! I had that for lunch today!'.

Lily noticed that every time Lela folded the assortment of garments a loud tinkling noise that seemed to comfort her sounded from her wrist. Now there lay eight more charms along with the two, the birthstone and the heart, that lay there the first days. She had received one every other day for the past week and a half; now that dance was coming up Lily predicted that about three more charms would appear on her wrist equaling to thirteen. The charms were as follows!

The heart with LG engraved in it, The small opaque birthstone, a shimmering rose with dots of shimmering diamonds, a happy looking pumpkin, a wand producing stars, a small golden snitch, the emblem of Gryffindor house, a small locket with a reoccurring picture of her mother that progressed in age, a candlestick with a small glowing flame, and a small replica of the full moon. Each one Lela knew meant something different and she was expecting the final charms to be extravagant and to reveal themselves in the shape of her secret admirer. Lela and Lily found their costumes and thanked Madame Melandina as all their requests were met with what they wanted on it and they packed it up and set out as an exaughsted Melandina kissed them both on the head for their help. They hurried out of the shop before anyone could stop them and ask them where Madame was and hurried down the chilly street to the Three Broomsticks. As they skidded to a halt in front of the Three Broomsticks they noticed Severus Snape walking down into Knockturn Alley. Lela proceeded forward after him but Lily grabbed her arm and all but threw her inside the restaurant,

"Not today Robin Hood," Lily said.

"Robin Hood? He stole from the rich and gave to the poor, I like to think of myself as a young and dashing Sherlock Holmes! Get you're heroes straight," Lela retorted as Lily just shoved her into the booth, strangely enough next to Sirius. Lela didn't seem to notice so Lily didn't say anything.

Lily also noticed the Sirius' eyes drew their attention to Lela's bracelet as she played with each individual charm. Lily couldn't quite make out the look on Sirius' face, appreciation, or curiosity?

Soon this whole charade would be over and Lily was sure that Sirius would either be left the victor or the crushed.


	17. The Roots of Friendship&the Tangled Ball

Authors Note: Long time since the update I know guys I'm incredibly sorry! Really! But here it is the new scoop going down! I got it all under control! And Scene!

Disclaimer: I do not own Hp, props to whoever does, yada yada yah, xo hugs and kisses, you're invited to my birthday and we're done.

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Chapter 17; The Roots of Friendship and the Tangled Ball

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After their trip to Hogsmeade the girl's retired to their dorm in the Gryffindor Tower and laid out their costumes. Lela and Lily both stepped back to admire their wonderful outfits. Lela put her hands on her hips as her black hair fell down her shoulders in soft curls and Lily ran a hand through her messy yet attractive red hair. She let out a sigh of satisfaction and patted her comrade on the back,

"Nice job," she murmured as she glanced out the window; the sun was already setting, oh how the time flew! Lela nodded and also looked out the window that sat at the girls left side. Soon a silhouette grew from the sun's diminishing rays. Lela walked over to the window, opening it slightly as Lily proceeded in hanging the costumes delicately on hangers.

Soon the silhouette became clear, and a gentle barn owl settled on the windowsill holding a small pouch in it's beak. No note accompanied it but Lela knew it was from the secret admirer. She took the pouch and conjured up some grain for the old owl to nibble on.

She carried the pouch over to her bed and plopped down with a significant sigh that brought Lily to her senses as she had become enraptured in the outfits. Her emerald eyes followed the length of Lela's arms down to the pouch which she held tightly in her hands. She walked over to Lela and sat down on the bed next to her,

"Aren't you going to open it?" Lily asked simply, a soft simmering had begun to show in Lela's eyes as if she were frightened, but the look was replaced with curiosity as she said softly,

"Of course," and untied the pouch and let the charm fall into her hands gently. It was a silver Wiccan star. She smiled and gently attached it to her bracelet and watched as it mingled peacefully with the other charms. She sighed and fell back onto the bed simply muttering,

"I am getting tired of this 'secret admirer'. I mean how pathetic does he have to be not to tell me who he is immediately? And why taunt me with the reoccurrence of these charms? I now have eleven, isn't that enough?" Lela sighed and Lily looked at her carefully.

"Do you honestly not get this?" Lily looked almost shocked at Lela's sudden stupidity, yet she was reminded that Lela lacked common sense. Lela sat up and looked hurt but Lily knew it was fake, "There will be thirteen charms on there; thirteen coinsides with Halloween, remember? And the whole point of a secret admirer is to be secretive, otherwise revealing yourself leaves you with something you might not have wanted to reveal. Maybe its Runnell Gubert from Hufflepuff," Lily laughed and Lela slapped her on the shoulder.

"Don't even joke! He's disgusting!" Lily's eyes narrowed,

"Shallow are we?" Lela's mouth dropped and she shook her head,

"Come on now! Me? Shallow? Like you would ever date him," Lela retorted. Lily nodded,

"True, true, he is a bit of a rat," Lily looked at Lela seriously and they suddenly burst out in laughter.

"Come on, let's go scrounge up some dinner!" Lela was in a precariously good mood, one she hadn't been in since, well, Sirius and her were involved.

They stumbled down the steps arm in arm when Lily slipped on a step and they tumbled down the stairs landing at the bottom tangled in each other. The two were giddy with laughter as they Marauders and couple others in the common room hurried over to them. The sight wasn't pretty but the girls seemed think it all quite hilarious.

"Lily! Are you alright?" James tugged his girlfriend off the floor and brushed her off as Lela still lay on the ground in hysterics. Lily nodded giggling still and held up her elbow as a sharp pain erupted through it, "You're bleeding," James said.

"Thanks for that Captain Obvious," burst out Lela. Sirius sniffed the air in a dog like fashion and winced covering his nose,

"Prongs, do you smell that?" Sirius asked as he rubbed his nose, James turned to the stairway and sniffed the air and made a disgusted look.

"Smells like," he sniffed the air again, "Fuzzlement Gas," he said placidly.

"What's that mean?" Lily giggled as her knees buckled and she burst into more hysterics. James hoisted her up again and all but dragged her to the couch. Sirius threw an unwilling Lela over his shoulder and all but threw her down on the couch.

"Fuzzlement Gas; it muddles the thoughts and makes the person lose all train of thought," Remus explained as his eyes drifted to the dorm.

"I don't think Lela needed the Fuzzlement Gas to do that," Lily laughed as a shocked look fell over Lela's face,

"How dare you Cad!" she laughed. James and Sirius performed simple spells that made the girls sneeze uncontrollably until they regained their composure.

Lela stood abruptly noticing Sirius no more than five inches from her face. Sirius fell back onto the woven rug that lay in front of a blazing fire. She looked to Lily who looked back almost the same as they thought for a moment.

"I'm hungry," Lily concluded. Lela laughed some then stopped thinking it was unnatural and sniffed the air.

"Great, not again," she muttered.

"Not again?" James said clasping onto Lily's hand.

"Yeah, it's sort of happened before, but an attack usually follows," she sat in puzzlement for a moment as the shocked faces of the Marauders brought her to her senses and she said, "You have to remember I haven't been here that long, therefore what happened before I came to Hogwarts will still happen here," she mumbled and shook her head, "Oh well, I'll get to the bottom of it later. You know it would have worn off any second without you using that sneezing charm. Flattering," she sighed and looked to Lily and said softly, "So you want to go now?"

Lily nodded slowly as if not being able to take this in. More was beginning to unfold about this strange girl she had become best friends with. Sure, they were best friends, but she kept reminding herself that she knew very little of her. That would all change soon though, sure enough. More things would unfold and bring the girl to light where Lily could examine and completely understand Lela and her mysterious past.

But until that fateful day came, Lily's stomach would cry out with hunger.

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The next few days past in a blur to Lily. They had been given a temporary break from exams and classes before the ball, in which all the girls in their tower were talking drastically of dates and plans.

Lela, Lily noticed, had received another charm arriving once again by owl, and it was a tiny lit up version of Hogwarts. Lily began to think that Lela treasured that bracelet a little too much. She fondled the bracelet carefully while she slept that night, dreaming of what may occur that next night that final charm may lie on her bracelet.

The morning of ball came in a blast. Lily awoke to the sunrise through the window and thought it was much too early to be awake, still she crept out of bed and proceeded to shower and dress herself. The ball wasn't until later that evening so she greeted the day.

The first thing Lily did on her morning journey was hop on Lela so suddenly that Lela gave a cry and flung her off the bed. Other girls roused some but plunked back into their pillowy depths seeing that it was only the troublesome duo. Lela rubbed her eyes grudgingly and looked at Lily without a word. Lily had her hand over her mouth trying to stifle snickers of excitement and giddy.

"What in the name of Merlin are you doing up so damn early Lillian?" Lela groaned as she came to reality; well as close to reality as one may get in an enchanted world. Lily gathered herself up and stood brushing off herself. She wore a faded pair of jeans a green sweater and a snug coat over it. Her red hair was pulled back in a braid and she stuffed her hands in her pockets smiling saying softly,

"Come on now Lela, we have some work to do," Lela glanced up at her suspiciously and gave another groan as she fell out of bed onto the cold stone floor. She lay for a moment before speaking, sleep threatening to take her once more, even on a chilly stone floor.

"What work? I thought we were on a break you red headed demon," she sat up and looked to the fading embers.

"I mean we have work, come on I'll meet you down in the common room," Lily turned to leave with a smile and then turned sharply all but yelling, "And don't go back to sleep!" Lela gave a smirk of complete resentment and stumbled off to the showers.

Fifteen minutes later a fresh black bobbing head hopped down the stairs. She herself wore jeans also, a colorful blouse and black coat. Lily smiled to her friend as she rose from her chair in front of the fire,

"About time damnit," Lily grabbed her hand and they headed off.

"You still haven't told me exactly where we're going Ms Mystery," Lela replied insidiously.

"Well if I told you, it wouldn't be much fun now would it?" Lily hurried down a small corridor as a soft groan sounded from behind her. Soon the dark engulfed them and they seemed to have disappeared, off to do their mischief no doubt. Girls of that age are always pining for such adventures, but just what they were planning could not be revealed yet.

Back in Gryffindor tower a boy lay in his bed in the early hours. He too was kicking himself for being up so early on a holiday from school. He sighed and rolled out of bed onto his feet. As he walked over to a short desk with many books and magazines of Quidditch he shuffled through some papers and thought for a moment. Was he really going to do this? Was he really going to reveal his secret to her? He sighed once more took out a small envelope and held up one last solitary charm, the game had been going on for quite some time now. The charm dangled from his fingers in the early morning light. He glanced out the window and sighed,

"I guess I really am going to do this," he sighed and set the charm back in its envelope and went to the showers to wash his worries down the drain.

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Later that day the girl's dorm room of Gryffindor Tower and probably every other dorm in the entire school was in a flurry of dresses, makeup and hair clips. Lela and Lily opened the door with laughter only to find girls in hysterics looking for shoes and ribbons and what not. Lela and Lily glanced at each other,

"Evasive plan of action?" Lela muttered gently as if the girls before them were a hungry pack of wolves, well they might as well have been.

"Right, on my count," Lily said back getting into a runners stance, "Three, Two-"

"Charge DAMNIT!" cried Lela before Lily had a chance to cry out the last number. The girls charged through the crowd were smacked with ribbons and powder poofs, shoe heels and worse still. Once they broke through the intense crowd the girls gathered up their things and dived back into the lions den. Lily slipped and cried out. As Lela ran back to help her she was knocked over by a blossoming young girl half dressed and quite exposed. Lela crawled over to Lily crying out with the regret of a world renouned actress,

"No man left behind!" She grabbed her hand and they struggled to the door. When the finally broke free and the door shut behind them clutching their dresses shivering. The boys were in the common room flipping through textbooks and magazines as the girls lay breathless at the top of the stairs.

"Remind me never to talk to that Milicent Meldrove again," breathed Lela who was still trying to shake the memory of two great mountains of flesh being shoved into her face as she collapsed in defeat.

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The night erupted behind the treetops of the Forbidden Forest and the girls were finishing their touches on their costumes still laughing uncontrollably of their mischief they had planted the night before. The plan of action was in effect.

In the boys dorm all was calm as they buttoned up their dress robes and looked in the mirror to rearrange hair follicles out of place. James came up behind Sirius and patted him on the back,

"I feel like I'm going to my own funeral," muttered Sirius gravely as he tied a mask around his face to hide his identity.

"Nonsense," James said confidently as he straightened his tie.

"She's going to murder me, and knowing Lela, she wont hold back on the different ways to string out my entrails," Sirius' head drooped and looked at his hands,

"Everything is going to be fine," and with that the boys carefully plunked down the stairs to the Great Hall to meet their fine partners. What awaited was more than any could anticipate.

As Dumbledore rambled on through the opening speech to declare the Yule Balls opening, Lily and Lela stood at the top of the stairs behind the pillar as all the others were gathered below. Lela smiled to Lily who was frantically trying to fix her outfit in various places. When Lela grabbed her shoulders to keep her still Lily looked up and chuckled nervously,

"You look fine," she said gently. And suddenly the music started up below, "Fate awaits," she said softly and Lily nodded to her as they both took a deep breath and walked out into the shimmering light cascading the Yule Ball in all its glory. The girls commanded the attention of the room with their presence as their outfits were most desirable.

But one attention that caught Lela's eye was that of a boy in a mask no one else had thought to wear. She smiled to him intrigued by his ways that seemed so familiar yet distant in an unrecognizable fashion.

And inside that boys left breast pocket lay a yellow envelope that held the last charm to a bracelet that lay upon Lela's left wrist.

Fate awaits us all.

**To be continued…**


	18. The Root Friendship&the Tangled Ball pt2

Authors note: You all can shoot me now. I promise. I'm taking a ton of AP courses this year so Im a little tapped out for time and this summer was one crazy day, so Im really trying! I really am. Oh, and thank you to everyone who kept reading and reviewing even when they saw that my Update date was like a year ago.

Disclaimer: I Do not Own HP or any of its characters, but i do throw a birthday party for Harry. So call me a freak and lets get this over with.

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Chapter 18: The Roots of Friendship and the Tangled Ball Part 2

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Lela stood at the top of the stairs and took a deep intake of breath as the cool washed over her from the slight draft coming from the star spanned ceiling. Breathing, just deep breaths as she let her eyes fall over the crowd, to the familiar yet unmistakably mysterious masked face. She smiled gently to the gent in clouded mystery and for a split second she thought he might have smiled back at her. A secret smile, only meant for her.

She felt a nudge at her side and noticed that Lily was prodding her side to urge her down the marble steps that graciously preceded the Great Hall that had been magically transformed into a Halloween Wonderland. Or rather nightmare. Pumpkins floated upon lanterns while green flickering fairy lights hovered just above the numerous heads of their schoolmates. They were hardly noticeable unless one really searched for them.

Lela descended the steps with an airy wake about her, her lavish black gown amidst her, trailing down the steps after her. The corset like top hugged her upper body, plumping in all the right areas as it billowed out around her hips hanging and tightening in low places upon her hips. the end of the dress trailed down her back slowly slendering in tiny perfectly packed ruffles, yet it made no sound when she walked. Her wake was extravagant, yet quaint and elegant. The dress simple, yet sparkling in peculiar places. Her hair was swept half up, the other half cascading down her back in sinewy curls that ended around her mid-back. She looked like a dark goddess of the Underworld, yet the light that shown from her face contrasted the image so well that one was confused each moment they locked gaze with the clouded grey eyes.

Lily however, was quite the contrast to her best friends gown. Her dress was a mid length mermaid type gown, a variety of different colored greens that accentuated each fleck of green in her eyes. The fabric twisted down her body with exotic live pink flowers that seemed to breathe when she walked. Her blazing red hair was a mess of loose curls that flowed about her face held back only by a light pink flower, much like the ones upon her dress.

The girls seemed to float down the ancient steps, commanding the gaze of the entire room, and for a brief moment, everything became hazy and the music tempo slowed to a dull beat as their feet finally hit the hardened stone. Their high heeled feet each clacked gracefully upon the stone and suddenly, the music was back up and everyone had returned to their gathering cliques.

Except for the gaze of two young boys. Lily saw hers first as he quietly walked over to her embracing her in a gentle hug so as not to smudge the soft rouge on her cheeks.

They shared a soft kiss as James tugged at the ends of her red hair gently and took her hand with a proud smile as he took her away from the crowded area to the middle of the ballroom floor to have his destined dance with the woman of his dreams.

Lela stood rooted to her spot, for the first time embarrassed that she had not thought to bring a date.

The soft tinkling about her wrist reminded her of someone as she looked down distractedly to fondle the bracelet for a moment. She looked up to find her mystery man had fled the scene and she fought back the urge to cry. She must stay strong in this time, what did it matter if she didn't have a date?

She was practically the belle of the ball. Without the beau of course.

Another breath and she was off thinking again,

'Alright Lela, this is going to be a long night so just, keep your head and don't look so needy. Find someone you know, socialize.'

Once again she fought back the need to cry and headed off into the desolate crowd in search of someone she might know to take her mind off the promise of the secret admirer reveal.

Lily and James seemed to be dancing to their own beat as the tempo of the music had changed several times since they had found themselves immersed in each others arms.

Once again though, the tempo had slowed and they fell back into step. James pulled back for a moment to admire Lily's face. They were as two lovers should be; totally forgotten in the real world and building their own castles in a sky that was donned with magic and hope for romance.

"You look absolutely beautiful Lily Flower," James whispered in her ear softly. The soft breath tickled her ear as she pressed herself closer to him, her hands tightening on his forearms.

He smiled softly to her and swayed her gently to him, his hand resting on her lower back with a slight pressure that insisted that she stay close for fear of not being able to breath if she were anywhere else.

"You don't look too bad yourself there Potter," she said through a permanent smile that couldn't be phased.

She heard him chuckle some as his chin went to rest on her shoulder, soft breathes being blown deep into her ear, muzzling her brain and sharpening her senses to his every touch.

She bit down on her lip as he cradled her gently between his legs.

"Lily?" James all but whispered to her. Her breath caught in her throat and she was afraid for one moment that she might not be able to answer. Yet somehow she found the ability to speak through her hazy thoughts.

"Yes?" she managed.

"I love you," he sighed. She could feel him tense for a moment.

Lily's eyes widened, the music had suddenly stopped as the band announced that they would be taking a break. Lily stood frozen, the music in her own head had ceased, her thoughts melted away as she was flown back to reality to this boy who had just proclaimed his love for her; a boy she had hated not but a month ago.

"Lily?" she heard him say, yet it was an echo. She was lost in a world where she couldn't very well breathe. Her head spun and she felt dizzy.

James pulled back, a look of hurt and concern moved the features on his face. She looked up at him with dazed eyes and she slowly moved back. The grip on his arms had loosened as she realized the game she had been playing. The thoughts she was guilty of thinking with James Potter.

She hastily glanced at the clock that towered high over the bands stage that precisely read 11:45 pm.

Had she really been dancing with Potter for over 2 hours and not even realized it? What was happening to her?

'Love, LOVE is what's happening to you Lils!' her inner voice all but screamed at her. She shook her head outwardly and James stared in disbelief at the girl that stood before him.

He was losing her. He was inwardly beating himself senseless for saying something so stupid. Yet it was true. He did love her, he had loved her from the moment he had met her, in so many words.

"Li-" he began, but he was hastily interrupted by her voice. Yet it didn't sound like her at all.

"I'm sorry James. This isn't true, I can't do this. I'v been lieing to myself and I'v just now realized it. I can't- I don't- I don't know what this is. You can't expect me to sit here and say something like that back to you can you?" Lily was in a different world. She had never been faced with this kind of obstacle; of love. It was absurd to even think it. Lily? In love with Potter?

Tears stained her eyes, hot tears that ran a course down her cheeks and splayed across her dress feeding the breathing flowers that thirsted for something sweet.

She backed away knocking into couples, hastily excusing herself with an exasperated, raven haired boy desperately calling after her.

The pain in his voice was evident, and Lily had caused that, but what could she do? She couldn't possibly tell him she loved him if she didn't mean it right? Would she have meant it?

The truthful voice in her ear was screaming at her that it would be true but the logical, firery red head was not willing to believe it.

As she hastily made her retreat a lonely boy with angered hazel eyes stood in the middle of a parted dance floor, kicking himself for ruining something so perfect. Two tear drops burned his eyes as he turned sharply and headed out of the Great Hall.

Lela, however, was engrossed with the starry night sky. She had been for over an hour now. After making no success in finding few people to converse with she had retreated to a quiet ivy covered spot out in the open night on a terrace held high above the grounds. It overlooked the Lake where the Giant Squid was lazily lolling a tentacle to the moon, recreating its shape with no enthusiasm.

She leaned against the stone railing that held her back from falling to a near death to the dark grounds below that seemed to sparkle with the early dew drops. The wind blew a soft caress of cool across her face and she closed her eyes to the moonlight that cast a shadow behind her. She slowly opened her eyes when she realized that another presence was with her on the terrace. She didn't dare look back, for fear of seeing another happy couple come to wish upon the countless shooting stars that had adorned the night sky. For some reason, Lela had the feeling that one of the professors must have bewitched the sky to give false falling stars a streak across the sky so as to enhance the Fall Romance.

She inwardly scoffed at the idiocy of it all, yet secretly wished to be able to wish upon one of the false starlits with someone loved at her side.

The presence was still there and she had heard no sound. She sighed and straightened herself as she said with false courage,

"Would you like to join me or just stare at my backside until the sun comes up?" she quickly glanced over her shoulder to see a tall handsome figure standing behind her, the mask mocking her.

The soft tread of footsteps signaled his coming forth as he laid both hands on the stone rail.

Lela kept her gaze skywards. The mystery man did not speak, but gently laid something on the stone rail.

Lela looked down with a slow, cautious gaze. A tiny velvet pouch teetered on the ledge and Lela swept it up before it fell. The tinkling of her bracelet caught the attention of the masked mocker. She felt a smirk pass his lips and she looked at him, trying to see through the mask with much dismay.

The boy nodded to her, motioning for her to open the pouch. Lela's hands shook for a moment as she fingered the string that held the pouch tightly shut. Would this final charm reveal her mystery man, and if so would she even want the mystery to be revealed? What if it was a disappointment? What if it was all a joke, a game that this person was playing for kicks? What if it was a trap?

She hadn't thought of that. What if this was just a ploy to get her into something that she was most definitely trying to avoid?

'What trouble? Lela, you're an idiot, their charms. Just shut up and open the damn thing already.' Her troublesome voice bellowed.

With little hesitation, she ripped open the pouch and picked out the final charm that would lay upon her wrist.

She held it up to the moonlight to see that it was a miniature form of a shaggy, matted looking dog. It's eyes glowed with a relentless and pleading yellow glow.

Her mouth dropped. Her eyes passed to the masked face. His hands had gone for the charm and fastened it slowly to her bracelet. She held her wrist up to admire the many charms that winked in the moonlight. A soft smile played her lips. She had an inkling. A thought that maybe he was it. Now she just needed to confirm it.

Her hands went to the mask and slowly pushed it back across his hair. Perfectly stunned grey eyes met hers. They seemed to shake in the moonlight. She threw the mask aside and a smile spread across her entire face.

"Please, don't hit me," he whispered.

She laughed gently and shook her head, soft tears rolling down her face.

"I knew it," she sighed gently looking down at the cobblestone and beating herself senseless inside for being right. But she wanted it to be him.

Sadly, that was the only person she wanted it to be.

A hand felt its way under her chin and lifted her face up only to be met by a pair of warm lips that succumbed hers and sucked her into a world she had forgotten until then. Every emotion flooded back through her, feeling their way to the tips of her toes. A ringing was pounding her ears and she all but laughed through the heart wrenching kiss. The kiss finally broke as he cradled her in his arms swaying her gently, the breeze blowing both of their hair to one side as she whispered.

"Damn you Black," she laughed and buried her head in his shoulder. Tears flowing freely down her eyes now she clutched him without a thought of ever letting go. He held her there for what seemed like an eternity. Over his shoulder she held up her wrist and gazed once more at the bracelet that never got boring. All the charms seemed to fall into place, each had a special meaning and purpose. And as she closed her eyes and dropped her hand to clutch back around his neck to his shoulder blades a single un-enchanted shooting star flew over head. Inside, Lela knew it was real, even if she didn't see it.

The love she felt, and not the star.

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Authors note 2: I know right? Amazing. Sorry there might be a lot of typo's. I wrote this all without stopping once! Just for you guys! I feel so good that I finally finished it! If anything is confusing tell me and I'll try to clear it all up for you guys! I really hope you enjoyed it. Review for me please if you feel like it! I'm so glad I have such loyal readers like you!

Cliff hangers are the best.

Chapter 19 coming soon.


	19. Rooted to the Spot, the Last Petal Falls

A/N: I am so sorry. No, really. I personally apologize. Three years?! Three years without a single update?! I'm lucky if any of you are even still out there! You can un-friend me, un-favorite me, whatever you want to, I completely understand. But! I am back, and hope to be giving regular updates every 1 to 2 weeks, get this story rolling again and regain my followers. Again, I'm extremely sorry for my absence, if you can never forgive me for being such an awful fanfic writer, I completely understand, but hopefully some of you are still out there.

Disclaimer; I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters associated with J.K. Rowling's 7 novels. Lela is the only character I claim as my own.

[Recap of Chapter 18; Roots of Friendship and the Tangled Ball pt2]

"Lily?" James all but whispered to her. Her breath caught in her throat and she was afraid for one moment that she might not be able to answer. Yet somehow she found the ability to speak through her hazy thoughts.

"Yes?" she managed.

"I love you," he sighed. She could feel him tense for a moment.

Lily's eyes widened, the music had suddenly stopped as the band announced that they would be taking a break. Lily stood frozen, the music in her own head had ceased, her thoughts melted away as she was flown back to reality to this boy who had just proclaimed his love for her; a boy she had hated not but a month ago.

"Lily?" she heard him say, yet it was an echo. She was lost in a world where she couldn't very well breathe. Her head spun and she felt dizzy…

He was losing her. He was inwardly beating himself senseless for saying something so stupid. Yet it was true. He did love her, he had loved her from the moment he had met her, in so many words.

"Li-" he began, but he was hastily interrupted by her voice. Yet it didn't sound like her at all.

"I'm sorry James. This isn't true, I can't do this. I've been lying to myself and I've just now realized it. I can't- I don't- I don't know what this is. You can't expect me to sit here and say something like that back to you, can you?" Lily was in a different world. She had never been faced with this kind of obstacle; of love. It was absurd to even think it. Lily, in love with Potter?

As she hastily made her retreat a lonely boy with angered hazel eyes stood in the middle of a parted dance floor, kicking himself for ruining something so perfect. Two tear drops burned his eyes as he turned sharply and headed out of the Great Hall.

Meanwhile, on the terrace;

Lela's hands went to the mask and slowly pushed it back across his hair. Perfectly stunned grey eyes met hers. They seemed to shake in the moonlight. She threw the mask aside and a smile spread across her entire face.

"Please, don't hit me," he whispered.

She laughed gently and shook her head, soft tears rolling down her face.

"I knew it," she sighed gently looking down at the cobblestone and beating herself senseless inside for being right. But she wanted it to be him.

Sadly, that was the only person she wanted it to be.

A hand felt its way under her chin and lifted her face up only to be met by a pair of warm lips that succumbed hers and sucked her into a world she had forgotten until then. Every emotion flooded back through her, feeling their way to the tips of her toes. A ringing was pounding her ears and she all but laughed through the heart wrenching kiss. The kiss finally broke as he cradled her in his arms swaying her gently, the breeze blowing both of their hair to one side as she whispered.

"Damn you Black," she laughed and buried her head in his shoulder. Tears flowing freely down her eyes now she clutched him without a thought of ever letting go. He held her there for what seemed like an eternity. Over his shoulder she held up her wrist and gazed once more at the bracelet that never got boring. All the charms seemed to fall into place, each had a special meaning and purpose. And as she closed her eyes and dropped her hand to clutch back around his neck to his shoulder blades a single un-enchanted shooting star flew over head. Inside, Lela knew it was real, even if she didn't see it.

The love that she felt, and not the star.

[End Recap]

Chapter 19; Rooted to the Spot, the Last Petal Falls..

The morning light filtered through Lily Evans' bed curtains, a sliver of light piercing its way through the crack in the thick fabric and boring straight for her closed eyelids. She exhaled slowly, squinting her eyes shut for a moment before bringing hand over her forehead. She rolled over; trying to exclude last night's events from her mind, but it was pointless. It had happened, she couldn't ignore it.

James Potter had professed his long intended love for her, and there was no escaping that now. What had she done? She didn't even know if she wanted this from the beginning, thinking it could possibly be a simple game of Potter's; finally get her in his clutches, get her to trust him and then it all blow up in her face, just like some sick prank.

She stuffed her matted, curled hair under her pillow and let out an exasperated noise of indecision. He had seemed sincere.

'What does it matter if he was sincere?! I don't love him!' the logical and slightly less romantic voice inside of her head reasoned to her.

'Yes you do.' The quieted voice from last night, the one that had screamed at her to say something back to James, not just leave him there, piped up cautiously, as if the logical voice could somehow bring physical pain down upon it. Lily pushed the pillow hard around her ears to try and block out the two sides raging in her head.

Sadly though, she knew which was right, which was warranted and should be obeyed.

"Le-e-ela," the muffled voice called from under the fortress of her pillow. But there was no answer. "Lela" she tried calling a little louder, thinking the fabric of the curtains must be thicker than she thought. Still, no answer rang out, no grumble of anger from being awoken sounded across the room. Lily's head popped up and she pressed her face through her curtains to peer at the bed that Lela usually occupied across the room.

It was unmade, as per usual with such a creature as Lela, and the curtains were opened, untouched even. The tattered, leather bound book she had retrieved earlier that week from the boys' dormitory lay sitting crooked on her bedside table where she'd left it.

Lily raised an eyebrow, slid out of bed and squinted in the alarming sunlight that lifted the room. She fumbled across to the vanity mirror, not giving a second thought to her friend's whereabouts at the moment and glanced at herself in the mirror.

"Ugh," she moaned as she slid onto the seat. Her cheeks, pinched pink with rouge last night had slid down her face with the accompaniment of the tears that had persisted their way with her all the way to the tower. Her mascara, much the same, had dripped down her face, leaving trails rounding out and darkening her cheeks, the lipstick had smeared its way down her chin while the matted curls flew around her face like a wildfire. She rested her head on the vanity mirror until she found the strength to pull herself up and make her way to the showers. Hiding her face from any possible mirrors, hoping the hot water would wash away any inkling of doubt that rested inside of her.

Lela, woke up much the same way, however she was occupied by a naked torso, dark hair splayed across the pillow on which his head rested. Her pillow of choice had been a hardened chest, to her dismay. She raised her head, her arm resting over his stomach the fingers intertwined on the opposite side.

His chest rose and fell in an easy rhythmic pattern that had no doubt lulled her to sleep. A smile broke across her face as she watched the slightly parted lips take an intake of breath and exhale it again, fascinated by the mere breathing of this character that lay before her. She buried her face in his neck, nuzzling and nipping on him slightly. He grumbled something in his sleep nodding his head to the side a little before relapsing into slumber. Lela was not one to be thrown off however; when she was awake, everyone was awake. She steeled herself, her arms on either side of his face, raising herself above him and then dipping her head down, taking the lobe of his ear in her mouth and tugging slightly.

"Whatsit withit, woman," the slumbering bear answered. She laughed quietly kissing down onto his neck, pacing her lips back and forth on his shoulder as the grey perturbed eyes of Sirius Black slowly opened to the curtains above his head. He looked to his left where a black haired goddess was working out a serious discretion on his shoulder. He snaked his arm around her waist and hastily pulled her body over to his right side, where he then maneuvered his able upper half over hers and smiled down at her.

"Good morning, dog," She greeted him in mock rage.

"You tease," he growled before descending upon her lips pressing onto her forcibly as if the air couldn't possibly be as important as her lips connected to his. Arching her back to press her naked body up to his, her hands entangled in his long messy hair she breathed in the scent of him. She let her hands roam down his chest, remembering each plane and crevice she had found in his abdomen, allowing them to memory, promising to keep them in her sight as often as possible.

A small groan escaped the boy that rested above her as he parted, panting for breath and whispered sternly, "Now, now, it's morning and you can't possibly expect to do that to a man without being reprimanded in some way." She felt an uncomfortable hardening on her inner thigh and grinned sheepishly.

She looked up into his face, a mischievous smile marking her face. He grinned back, remembering exactly why he persisted after this dark haired beauty for so many weeks.

"Punish me then," she whispered arching her body up to his again. He sucked in a deep breath, holding his composure as long as he could while looking down upon such a magnificent creature.

He put his best face of nonchalance upon her and sighed dramatically,

"Well, if you insist." He grinned wickedly and came down upon her. Lela opening willingly; the morning was spent roving about in a tussle of covers, the two lovers coming together in unison, the night not yet forgotten, and the fever of which each felt for each other persisting. The burning need intensifying until satisfied.

James sat quietly, still, staring at the opposite wall inside of the Room of Requirement. The Room hadn't been much help to his situation, remaining as a constant reminder of the red-haired siren that had plagued his mind all that night. He rested on the cold stone floor, his knees up and arms hanging over each kneecap, a bottle of almost-empty firewhiskey clutched in his left hand. His eyes drooped, bloodshot from the uninterrupted night of drinking, blearily gazing at the wall that held recollections, photographs, drawings and etchings of Lily Evans which the Room had procured up at James' entrance. He had to admit, he was a bit perturbed that the Room thought to take this approach but then again, it was always equipped for the seekers' needs and indeed it was. Six cases of firewhiskey were stacked off to the corner of the Room, six corresponding Kleenex boxes sat close to the firewhiskey (James had scoffed at this and left them untouched) but a much needed toilet sat off to the side of the firewhiskey where James had spent most of his morning paying tribute to the porcelain god.

His bleary eyes couldn't possibly be ripped away from the thousands of images that the wall displayed. He had sat in a concentrated wasted state and couldn't come up with a single answer to the night's previous events. He had told Lily Evans that he loved her and it had been true. Yet, she chose to accept his proclamation and left him in the middle of the dance floor. Several eyes had turned, most were female with reprimanding stares after Lily, others saddened at the sudden turn in which James' situation had taken and then there were those with greedy almost hungry looks plastered across their make-up clouded faces; the chance at James Potter again open. James hadn't noticed these looks however, his eyes remained glued to the retreating figure that was running away from him as fast as she damn well could and he couldn't place a reason to it.

'She said she couldn't, no wouldn't say it back because she couldn't possibly love me. But she didn't look at me when she said it and I couldn't…' James stopped his thoughts there, always winding up at the same unrevealing conclusion. He didn't understand Lily Evans, he hardly knew Lily Evans but he knew that she had to be his in some way, he could feel it.

He did know one thing; The one truth James Potter would have stood behind for the rest of his days was the one truth that Lily Evans chose to ignore.

James crawled the length of the way to his new religion and claimed heritage to the porcelain god again until he slumped over, his eyes finally meeting the ends and falling into a dreamless and deprived sleep.

Lily stumbled out of the shower, feeling no better than when she got in. Her eyes, bloodshot and watering remained unstable, all but shaking in the mirror before her as she crossed the room to grab a decent pair of sweats, her Gryffindor t-shirt and accompanying jacket. She found her muggle ball cap proclaiming her love of all things turtle and tucked her hair into its depths. If she was going to face breakfast at the Gryffindor table she wanted to be as little noticed as possible, damn near invisible if she could. Her mind then went to James' invisibility cloak tucked away up in his room, but immediately that led her to an image of James; the smiling, charming, warm hearted boy that had looked down at her with such vulnerability the night before and laid himself on the chopping block before her, and indeed she had chopped his head right off, hacked his body into pieces.

Lily groaned outwardly pulling the hood of her jacket up over her hat covering her head and kept the visor low over her stunning green eyes. They shone with the water that was persisting its way down her cheeks without conscious effort. She pulled on a pair of mismatched shoes, not particularly paying attention to fashion today and made her way carefully down the girl's dormitory steps. Her footsteps were careful and insisted on the essence of silence. She hopped the third stair down to miss the creak it would surely exude and all but darted through the empty common room in case someone were to stand at the top of the staircase and shout 'There! There she is! Lily Evans!' The threat, though clearly ridiculous when thought by a more level headed Lily, was real to the elusive and shamed Lily.

She shuffled precariously down the tower entering the Great Hall in a fashion that James Bond would have admired. Lily did as she always did roving through the crowded Hogwarts hallways, clutching her hands close to her sides as if she were holding a handful of heavy leather bound books, sure to keep her head down and avoid any eye contact, concentrating solely on her destination. When she broke through the thinning breakfast crowd into the Great Hall she took a seat as far in the shadows as she could. She even considered sitting at a different table other than Gryffindor's for optimal concealment but she seemed to think the other Houses were somehow aggressively territorial.

Eyes scanned the Hall with frustration, determination and fixated on the red head. Lily was only just picking into her dismal looking meal, dismal in her eyes because of the ache that persisted in her stomach and made everything turn to mush in front of her, when she heard a stomping approaching. She shrunk into her shadows without raising her head, wincing away from whatever was coming.

"Miss Evans?" a stern and reproaching voice rang out and Lily slowly lifted her head, expecting McGonagall she received quite a shock when the stern voice before her turned out to be none other than a very ruffled looking Lela. She grinned widely at her red headed friend and sat down on the cool bench that was situated under a blanket of shadows.

"Question," Lela asked looking around the scene before her. Lily looked up tentatively, her fork still mercilessly jabbing at the mess on her plate. Lela continued at her friend's belittled silence.

"What exactly are we doing sitting in the shadows like strange angry hobbit children?" Lily's mouth broke into an unexpected grin as she stared down at her plate.

"Something..happened last night..with James," Lily slowly mumbled.

"Really? Hot," Lela approved.

"No…not anything like that. He-," Lily paused glancing up at her friend, scanning the Hall ever so quickly for any sign of the boy in which she was currently conversing about. With no sign of his tousled black hair bobbing along the crowd in his ostentatious way she continued quickly under her breath.

"He said he loved me," She rushed the words, practically spilled them all over the table, throwing them at Lela who leaned back on the bench a little, no sign of surprise on her face.

"Lils, I don't mean to be a Captain Obvious, but everyone has sort of known that since about third year. Sorry to burst your bubble but we all saw that one coming. He probably just remembered to put on his brave pants that night and the words sort of came out," Lela conversed casually. Lily however, sat in awe and despair as she watched her friend easily dilute the situation into mere child's work. For the three second that Lily's mouth hung open to Lela's conclusion, Sirius Black stumbled proudly into the Great Hall, throwing his hair back and patting Remus on the shoulder as he sat down at his usual seat with his friends.

Lily ducked for cover. Lela, who was confused at this sudden change of character turned around to glance at the cause of Lily's sudden Mission Impossible move. A smile, quite like the one Sirius was beaming out to the world at this moment, spread across Lela's face as her eyes fell upon the face that she had been close with this morning. He caught her eye as well and gave a smug wink. Lela, rolling her eyes gave a mild wave and turned back to Lily.

"Oy, what's with the low profile Slim?" Lela queried to her friend under the table. After taking a look around under the table Lela continued on absently, "Hey, we should totally have a sleep over under here. You know, like build a fort with blankets and tables and benches and have candelabras and tell spooky stories and then-," Lela was abruptly cut off by a frantic 'shushing' on the other side of the darkened table.

"Do you think he saw me?" Lily asked in a frantic whisper. Lela studied Lily's fear stricken face and shook her head slowly.

"No, you've kind of got that whole 'bomber-on-the-rampage' look, I don't think anyone's looking at you. What's with you?" Lela soon began to worry about her friends sanity.

"Sirius! If he sees me, he'll tell James!" Lily cried quietly.

"Are you being completely and utterly coherent at this given moment? Because you're sounding like a crazy person," Lela's worried eyes continued to rove over her friend's face. "Are we hiding out from James?"

"Yes! Thus the 'bomber-on-the-rampage' outfit and thus the sitting in the angry hobbit kid corner!" Lily peaked her head above the table and glanced around. "I should have just skipped breakfast." She sighed.

"Why are we avoiding James?" Lela asked dumbfounded. Lily slowly raised her head and shook it back and forth at who she thought was her best and most understanding friend who was clearly missing the point.

"If Sirius sees me, he'll alert James, who will thus hunt me down, thus incurring an awkward battle of tears and humility, mostly on his part, and thus leading a guilt parade!" Lily finished dramatically.

"Is 'thus' our new vocabulary word for the day? Because frankly, I'm already sick of it-," in seeing the perturbed look on her friends face Lela held up two hands in surrender, "Alright, alright! But, for the record, I don't think Sirius is going to alert James to the whereabouts of Lillian Evans." Lily raised an eyebrow in confusion so Lela continued, "Sirius hasn't had any contact with James so far today, as much as I can vouch for anyways," Lela smirked, "James didn't return to the dorms last night. He's probably hiding out, just like you are," she finished lamely. "Two of kind, if you ask me." She said to herself under her breath.

"He didn't come back to the dorms?" Lily's worried face created lines that any impressionistic painter would envy.

"Can we get out from under the creepy table yet? I just remembered peoples feet sit under these tables," Lela grimaced and Lily nodded sheepishly to herself emerging from under the table. She took down her hood and removed her turtle hat, ruffling out her hair in the process.

"Ah! The prodigal witch returns," Lela beamed at the return of her friend from under her cover of copious amounts of fabric. Lily grinned bemused and continued to poke at her breakfast, which had not changed from it's consistency of mush before. She finally gave up and rose from the table eyeing Lela.

"You coming? I'm going to go change and head to the library before classes," Lela shrugged and got up as well, grabbing a small apple and juggling it from palm to palm. Lily had enough indifference and confidence in Lela's statement of Sirius knowing no more about Lily and James' situation the night before to pass his table. Lela, delighted, let her hand brush across the top of his matted black hair and slide to the nape of his neck upon passing. Sirius grinned at his mediocre breakfast and gave her a sly look over his shoulder before she exited the Great Hall on the heels of Lily.

James, bleary eyed and disheveled, pulled himself up from the cold, stone floor that kept whirling up to meet his face. Using the porcelain threshold for support he dragged his feet up from under him, his ankles, weakened jell-o beneath his pudding for calves. The light filtered through the high stained glass windows and ricocheted bits of semi-colored light around the room. A make-shift alarm, he thought. The colors were actual screaming noises in his head. When did colors achieve the power to vocalize?

'Probably between that 12th and 13th firewhiskey shot,' James thought benignly to himself. He made his way over to the window as if flagging down the colors to prove to them that he was, indeed, awake and moving. He set his throbbing head against the stone arch that bordered the stain glass window and looked out over a small portion of the grounds through a sliver of opaquely colored glass. He sighed and shut his eyes tight; the only problem was every time he shut his eyes, the events of last night that had driven him to this state of inebriation. That face, her face, spun circles in his mind constantly behind closed lids. After only a few seconds he opened them to the bright filtering light. This however was not any less pleasant than the red head swirling in his thoughts. They contained the same panging pain, the same throb of discontent, open or closed.

The decision to emerge from his own personal hell had yet to cross James' mind. He wasn't sure if the hallways would stay straight or if he'd be able to navigate his way easily around the halls without things and rocking and rolling in his peripherals. So he sat, weary, nauseous, eyes watering, face pressed against the cool window that gave him little relief. Normally, a day of sunshine would be heralded as a beacon of hope in the pursuit of vitamin D, and now all James wished for was dark, dismal clouds that would lull his tired mind into an impossibly peaceful sleep. But today, there was no hope for the young tussle haired boy. The sun persisted, as did the beautiful red blur, permanently etched into his mind. He sank to the floor, his head against the stone walls of the Room of Requirement and let out a long sigh.

Lily had buried herself in a tower of books. In her own cathedral of knowledge she delved into the information that poured itself from each page. This is how Lily dealt with confusion, with a diversion of information that took less time to unscramble itself in her brain than everyday human problems. She surrounded herself with tomes that would surround her mind and preoccupy her thoughts and leave her in a swirl of equation, measurements and complicated spells, leaving no room to think about anything else. It was her own inexplicable escape into another confusion.

Lela was also feverently at work, scanning the pages of the mysterious book she had recovered a month ago in the boy's dormitory. Lily would occasionally glance in Lela's direction to check her progress, still unsure of what the importance that the book held for Lela, and allowed herself to speculate some. But before any cohesive thoughts could form in that direction, Lily would turn back to her work, combing the stray hairs out of her face.

The girls stayed in the library until their classes called to them. While they hurried down the corridors to an advanced Transfiguration, Lily was lost in thought, unable to hold back her worries any longer, about possible contact with James. She wasn't exactly sure how she would deal with the encounter if it, inevitably, presented itself, but she knew that when she reached that bridge, she would somehow get across it.

However, by the time Lily reached the half way mark through her day, there was no sign of James; not in the halls, class, or stairwells. On any other given day, it would have been impossible for Lily not to have been bombarded by the presence of such a boy. Today was different. There was absolutely no sign of him. Regret and worry began to form in the back of Lily's mind to her dismay. Lela began to notice the constant look of disdain that riddled Lily's face and smirked lightly to herself. It would only be a matter of time before she came to her senses, surely enough. Lela had never been wrong before.

Later that evening, Sirius crept through the portrait hole, his smile never fading from its first appearance that morning. The common room was empty, save for a few second years that quickly scampered off at the sight of the trouble making Marauder, and Remus sat, his nose buried in the lastest book of 'Where be the Werewolf?' a calming narrative that told the story of a young man's trials and tribulations in the wizarding world while dealing with the ever present knowledge of growing up a werewolf. Needless to say, it was a trilogy that Sirius had no interest in. Once, Remus had tried to push the series on Sirius, who upon reading the first page, huffed himself into boredom threatening to tear it into pieces if he was made to read any more. He didn't care for books, but knew it must help Remus on some emotional level, a level that Sirius was not willing to stoop to any time soon.

"Have you seen Prongs?" Sirius queried absentmindedly to a distracted Remus. All he received in response was a quick head jerk in the general direction of the boys dormitories, which Sirius took to mean as the location of James current where abouts.

James hadn't been seen the entire day. Sirius, being too absorbed in his current state of elevated infatuation, had little need to notice. He had been too busy that day catching wafts of the beautiful girl that had invaded his bed the previous night and escaped his eyes in the hallways. She was an elusive creature, and Sirius had thoroughly enjoyed the hunt throughout the day. He always seemed to be one step behind her however, one second too later, one round of the corner a moment sooner and he would have found her. Yet every time she escaped. 'Story of my life.' Sirius mused to himself; almost a mantra each time she evaded him.

Deciding he had ignored his best friend for too long, he heaved himself off the couch, keeping himself from meeting the elusive creature he had sought after today from walking into his hands and jumped up the stairs to the boys dormitory two at a time.

He burst through the door, an entrance worthy of a king and smiled with his arms wide:

"Romeo! Romeo! Where for art thou Romeo!?" A lump of sheets in the far corner of the room gave a gruff reply,

"Bugger off."

Well, at least he thought it was funny. Sirius sauntered over to the darkened bed and pulled open the half heartedly pulled closed bed curtains and hopped on the bed.

"What's wrong Romeo?" Sirius whispered sarcastically to the lump that refused to meet the dim lamplight that filled the room.

"I said, 'bugger off' Padfoot," the sheets replied.

"My, my, aren't we a tad bit touchy? Where were you today? You missed a riveting lecture by old Sluggy; perfect time to unleash the smoke charm and you weren't even there! The room! It was like the Forbidden Forest on Halloween! You should have seen-," a loud groaning noise followed by the thunk of Sirius being thrown to the floor interrupted his riveting monologue.

"What is your deal?" Sirius demanded with a slight smirk on his face. The look of James over all appearance was absolutely priceless. His normal disheveled hair was more unruly than usual. It stuck out in such odd places that he looked almost electrocuted. The dark circles under his eyes almost made him look racoonish and he preserved a smell of probably the most ayurvedic of Flobber worms.

"You smell," Sirius retorted while shirking out a laugh.

"And you're ugly!" James replied, quite like a third grade girl and retreated dramatically under the covers. Sirius raised an eyebrow at his best friend who was slowly turning into a woman and stood up from the floor.

"Mate, what's wrong?" Sirius all but had to force the garish and girly sounding sentence from his mouth. He outwardly winced even, but it did the trick. James slowly emerged from his temple of one thousand thread count, using the excess as a cape of sorts as he stood, hanging his head in deep frustration.

"She hates me." He finally mumbled out. If Sirius hadn't have known James for so long and been able to decipher his cryptic mumbling, he might have missed it.

"Who does?" Sirius asked skeptically. James face rose up, the light slanting just off of his face as he glared at his friend.

"Who do you think, you prat?!" he all but yelled.

"Lily?!" Sirius replied in shock. Last night was a bit of a blur to Sirius and sure, maybe he hadn't been paying as much attention as he should, but when did he ever pay attention other than the hapless follow through of pranks or the eyes of the young ladies? He couldn't be blamed.

James huffed in affirmation and groaned as he pulled the covers up over his head in a make shift ghost outfit that the muggles seemed to enjoy on Halloween. He remembered the muggle children running up to his door, squinting through the windows, waiting for sweets. He had never understood the logic, but watched as his mother had passed out the candy with a smile on her face.

"She doesn't hate you mate. Why would she?" Sirius asked, slightly bemused by his friends outfit.

"I told her I loved her last night, and then she ran away," James muffled reply came from the sheeted monster.

"She…ran..away?" Sirius was gasping in between laughs, the head of the ghost hung in despair. The only indication being the folds in the covers growing deeper, sucking into the ghost of a boy inside.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry. She ran away? Like she bolted or something?" The ghost took a moment to reply.

"She walked out. She-she didn't say much at all; if anything," James replied with a large resounding sigh. "I shouldn't have said it."

"Yeah, you should have," a new perspective was forming inside the usually calloused and emotionally barred individual that was Sirius Black. "And anyways, I saw her today and she looked fine—sort of." Sirius reconsidered for a moment. The red head was shrouded in more clothing than usual, almost impossible to discern from the crowd.

"Sort of?" James had come out from under his tent and was looking at Sirius in the face with a look of certain hope.

"Well, no more unusual than, well, usual. She was sulking the whole day, hiding behind books; come to think of it, it was rather Lily-ish. Nevermind," Sirius finished chuckling. James face fell, crushed by the revelation that she was, sort of, not unchanged.

"What am I going to do?" he groaned as he sunk to the cold stone floor.

"Do what you always do, mate. Keep trying. Persistence is key! I mean, look where I landed!" Sirius exclaimed with his hands held up for a dramatic finish.

"Invisible? And more a prat than a best friend?" James guessed.

"NO! I woke up this morning with a beautiful—lady!"

"Lela?!" James exclaimed, his eyes bright with wonder and surprise.

"Who else skeez!?" Sirius slapped him upside the head to which he received a disgruntled reply.

"Congratulations, I'm alone." He sighed. Sirius stopped mid chuckle and stared wide eyed at his friend. He took two steps toward him, wound up and smacked him as hard as he could upside his head.

"SNAP OUT OF IT MAN! You're pathetic! Look at you!" James, in disbelief and shock from the massive blow automatically, "Sulking around all day in your briefs and trainers; your hair's a mess. You're James Potter, womanizer for Merlin's sake! Get back out there and get her back. This shouldn't even phase you!"

"It's different," He replied still rubbing the back of his head solemnly, "She's different, you don't get it. She said no! I put myself on the chopping block and she just- she just-," he couldn't seem to finish the sentence.

"Chopped your goods right off," Sirius finished dimly.

"What?" James looked up, almost confused at the blatant stupidity that his friend seemed to exude at times.

"I know the feeling," Sirius replied looking down at his feet and shaking his head.

"You are absolutely no help." James replied, "I'm going back to bed." He slumped back onto his bed and threw the covers back over his head.

"Come on, Prongs. We've got a mission tonight. Remember? Filches office, the records cabinet, Netherworldly exploding dungbombs!? Have you forgotten the reputation we've worked for?! Have you?!" at this point, Sirius was sitting on the bed, shaking the lump that was James. "Have you?! Come on: A chance to mess with the dungeon of doom." James peeked his eyes up over the covers. "Now, quit being a hormonal girl and get up. We'll fix this Lily thing later; besides, we need that spanking Invisibility Cloak of yours." A mischievous grin that had always lay plastered on the face of Sirius Black was once again regaining its natural place upon his mug. You can't keep the trouble out of a Marauder, no matter how down and out they seemed to be over the vicious opposite sex. Sirius was right, James would figure out what do about Lily later.

Lily and Lela had stumbled through the portrait hole not ten minutes after Sirius had himself. Lily, trying to be quiet, could not account for her fumbling friend. Lela was a tad ungraceful when she wasn't paying full attention. Her nose had been buried in the mysterious book ever since dinner in the Great Hall. Lily had tried to get her to resurface but she seemed to be too preoccupied in a certain excerpt. Lily, knowing how one likes to remain preoccupied, let her continue in silence, munching through her dinner that, unfortunately, had no changed in consistency much since that morning's breakfast.

Remus was still sitting in his armchair, buried in his teen werewolf book that Lily had actually skimmed over once while in Slughorns advanced potion making where Remus was her potions partner. She had actually found it quite charming. She smiled at Remus like she normally did. He peeked over the brim of the pages and quietly spoke, as he normally did,

"Good evening, ladies. Burning the midnight oil are we there Ms. Grace? Hello, Lily," he smiled in her general direction. Lela waved a reply still caught up on whatever page she had been into since dinner. Lily sat cautiously, throwing a glance up the boys staircase.

"He hasn't been down for hours, but if I remember correctly, we have a raid tonight in Filches professional quarters so-- ," Remus gave her a challenging look. Lily, always one for a game of wit with Remus stood her ground, bolstering up her courage.

"I have no idea what you could be talking about. I should however report you for even planning such a break in. Three week's detention no less from McGonagall, but you know better don't you Remus?" Lily asked with a smug smile on her face. For being made up of almost only jell-o inside, she was doing pretty well at holding her own in such a nervous situation, where James could possibly saunter down the staircase at any moment.

"Of course I do," Remus replied sarcastically retreating behind his book, grin lines still etched on his forehead. Lily smiled, feeling as if she had accomplished something and then began to shake some with the absence of conversation letting her thoughts run rampant again.

"Well, I have some last minute work to do, Slughorn wants that 3 foot analysis on the components of essence of murtlap by Wednesday. Lela?" She glanced to her friend who looked up distractedly from her book and motioned with her head to the staircase. "Want to come? Or do you want to sit in the company of an old prune?" Lily smirked in the general direction of Remus who chuckled behind his book.

"I'll meet you up there later, I've almost got this figured out I think," she then retreated back behind the pages while Lily sighed and headed up to her empty dormitory to bury herself in yet another mountain of work, before she would inevitable exhaust herself into a restless sleep.

Around one in the morning, two boys snaked their way down the staircase mumbling nonsense to one another. Remus, who was snoozing in his chair, startled awake only to look over his shoulder at the two bumbling boys.

"Mooney, my boy! Are you ready for some Filching?!" Sirius whispered energetically. James, slum faced, yet grinning slapped his good friend on the back. Easily, some firewhiskey was implored to lubricate the importance and hilarity of this venture.

"Yes, now keep it down. Where's Wormtail?" Remus inquired wiping the sleep from his eyes.

"He's waiting down by the Room to hand off the dungbombs," Sirius reassured his good friend with a pat on the back and looked up to see Lela smiling sleepily from behind her dusty covered tome.

"Hello there," Sirius smiled seductively as he walked over and leaned down to kiss her forehead. James outwardly groaned and lay the top of his head on Remus', "I've been dealing with the sourpuss for the past four hours, took me four shots of firewhiskey just to get him out of bed."

"I'm in your boat," Lela whispered brushing a stray strand of lofty hair from his forehead, "She won't even talk about it. They'll fix it, they will," she reassured him.

"Get to bed, you're having breakfast with me tomorrow morning," he kissed her lightly on her lips, sounded by another groan from James and smirked before heading off.

"Happy hunting," Lela called quietly before returning to her mother's book.

'Just a few more pages,' she thought to herself, 'then bed, I promise.' She was reassuring herself that sleep would come, giving way to the morning when she would see the mystery boy who had turned out to be no mystery at all; or at least that was what she was telling herself. Sirius Black hold more mystery than ever. She had completely underestimated his dedication, determination, and utter devotion to her. She thought she would be a fling, but the feeling seemed to be sticking with him. And she could only hope that it would continue.

Hopefully, it would. Now all she had to do was right the wrongs that the dumb little lovesick prats, Lily and James had gotten themselves into. Love wasn't supposed to be this complicated was it? She sighed and returned her attention to her book, scanning the depths for more clues on what exactly it was that her mother wanted her to have from this.

The lamplight grew dimmer, and her eyes grew heavier. Her pursuit was weakening.

A/N: That is chapter 19, I've been working on it for weeks and hope it doesn't disappoint. The next chapter which will be up in no more than 2 weeks will give some interaction between James and Lily! Keep reading! Again! I'm so sorry! Thanks for reading!


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